Dear Wally
by finallyxfound
Summary: When Miss Patty gives Rory a mysterious Christmas gift, Logan volunteers to help and while uncovering the mystery with him, Rory finds out just what she wants and who Elisabeth is.
1. Patrons, Parties, Presents and Patty

**Dear Wally**

**A story about an age old mystery of finding out what you want**

**A story about a box that holds a treasure and finding out that that something you want in life is right in front of your nose**

**Notes**

Post-"You Jump, I Jump, Jack"

Notes:

+ Emily and Richard are not together, they are separated.

+ Lorelai is still in Friday Night Dinner attendance.

+ Paris and Doyle are already in a dating relationship.

+ Rory and Dean are not together

Inspiration: (song) Dear Wally by Aslyn

**Cast List**

Rory Gilmore, Logan Huntzberger, Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes, Miss Patty, Paris Gellar, Doyle Evans, Finn Crawford, Colin Richardson, Stephanie Fontaine, Rosemary Petersen, Robert Grimaldi, Isabel Gardner, Emily Gilmore, Richard Gilmore, Sookie St. James, Jackson Belleville, Kirk Gleason, Taylor Doose, Marty, Michel Gerard, Steven Sebastian Easton, Walter "Wally", Elisabeth

My own characters added in. Isabel Gardner is one of Logan's many girlfriends.

**Chapter One**

**Patrons, Parties, Presents and Patty**

_Dear Wally,_

_A party is erupting around me as I write and sit in the warm interiors of Misses Hodges home on Main Street. Lights, music, and drinks have the whole town celebrating. What they are celebrating is still a mystery to me and Misses Hodges but we sit here on a bench in the town square and seeing the town happy like this is wonderful. I wish you were here to see it yourself. I love you._

_Yours Always, Elisabeth_

"Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee," Lorelai shouted into the kitchen of the diner where Luke was swamped with orders that needed to be filled before the coffee even tickled her nose for the night. She knew he was busy, but still managed to fish out her crazy Lorelai antics for the holidays and bug him until wits end.

Rory watched from the table and laughed to herself. She was ten when Luke moved and settled into Stars Hollow and she silently contemplated what life would be like without Luke and his diner in Stars Hollow and what her mother would be like without someone like him to bug. She would still be Lorelai, but it would be her that she would be bugging to wits end. Thank God for Luke, Rory silently thought to herself as Lane came rushing in from the party outside and the snow that was slowly falling down from the darkened December sky.

"Finally," Rory was distracted by Lorelai bringing two giant sized cups full of coffee towards their window table. "I got coffee."

"Did Luke finally break down and get you some?"

"No. He's a bad boyfriend for that," Lorelai jokingly pouted, sliding into her chair across from her daughter who was home for the holidays.

"How did you get the coffee then? He doesn't let Cesar get it for you because Cesar always gives you too much and oh my gosh, you went behind the counter didn't you?"

"I am sworn to secrecy," Lorelai said, pretending to lock her mouth with an invisible key.

"If I tell Luke, what won't I get for Christmas?" Rory was tempted and couldn't help but play along with the charade that Lorelai had whipped up.

"Um, the Colin Farrell look-alike that has a big red ribbon draped around him like the New Year's Baby under our tree," Lorelai pointed out, knowing her daughter's obsession with the Irish actor.

"Mom, you're the one in love with Colin Farrell, not me," Rory informed her as Lane stole some fries from the fryer in back and sat down next to her and grabbed for the salt in the center of the table.

"Okay, who's the irresistible hunk that has you dreaming steamy dreams all night long?" Lorelai inquired as Lane popped right into the conversation and gave away hers.

"Definitely Ben Mackenzie," she said, surprising even Rory on that one.

"Ben Mackenzie? Like _O.C._ Ben Mackenzie?"

"What? He's hot."

"Yes, he's hot, but he's _O.C._ Ben Mackenzie, Lane. Since when do you watch _the O.C._?" Rory asked, dipping one of the French fries into the ketchup pile that she had made on the side of the plate.

"Since never. But that doesn't mean that he isn't hot," Lane crunched on a crispy and surprisingly curly French fry that was amidst the straight and yellow ones. "Who's yours?"

"Mine?" Rory looked between her mother and Lane, surprised.

"Yes, yours Miss Susie Homemaker, you have to have a fantasy man in those sultry dreams that I know you have," Lorelai said, watching her daughter blush a bit from the embarrassing, but true statement.

She did have a fantasy, but it didn't include some famous actor like theirs did. Sure, she would like to dream about Colin Farrell or Ben Mackenzie, doing things to her that could only happen in her dreams, but they weren't the stars in her mind. Instead, she opted for the fantasy of a Yale Male: one who held her passion for books and love of classic movies like_ The Breakfast Club, The Princess Bride_, and of course, who could forget the Gilmore staple movie, _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_.

Of course, she would never tell Lane or Lorelai that, instead, she would just indulge them with some A-list Hollywood hunk of an actor that they were expecting from her. "Josh Duhamel," she finally said a name off the top of her head.

"_Las Vegas_ dude?" Lorelai's eyes popped open as two more people entered the diner, hungry and searching for a seat in the crowded, closed quarters.

"I didn't think you watched _Las Vegas_," Lane said, looking at her through the side of her glasses and giving her a strange look that only a best friend could do.

"I don't. But _Win a Date with Tad Hamilton_ definitely changed my mind about watching the show," Rory pointed out, putting another fry in her mouth before Lane or Lorelai could ask another fantasy dream question that resulted in her lying to them again.

It was the holidays: Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's…and it wasn't the time to be lying to two of the most important people in her life. It was more of a time to bond with them over said movies and tons of chocolate that would have them begging Luke to cook them healthy food in the morning. Popcorn, tater tots, Swedish Fish, Snocaps, Butterfingers, Crunch Bars and a mess of Reese's assorted candies were definitely in the cards for tonight: their annual Christmas Eve "Eat Chocolate until you turn into a Chocolate Factory" Movie Marathon.

"Okay, so…Lane, you got the movies?" Lorelai asked, seeing as their plate was almost empty.

"I've got the _Strictly Ballroom_ and the _Gone with the Wind_. You're supposed to have the others."

"Others? There are others?" Rory joked as Lorelai's eyes almost popped out of her head.

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore, what is rule number three in our handbook?" Lorelai asked very motherly and shockingly.

Rory rolled her eyes as she held her left hand up and her right hand was placed on her chest over her heart, "never have less than two movies on movie marathon nights. If you do have less than two movies, you must watch each of them three times through and throw popcorn at the hero of the movie at least once."

Faking the crying and bigheaded pageant, Lorelai gasped at her "girls" and started to overreact like the pageant mom would, "I am so proud. You and you," Lorelai turned to Lane, "are so my daughters. My pride and joys."

All three of them bust out in laughter which turned heads all over the diner, but none of them noticed. They were all in the spirit: the holiday spirit and were very ready for their movie marathon night. The ritual had become a staple in their lives as well as Stars Hollow. Kirk had even started letting the Lorelai's and Lane pick out the occasional black and white movie at the Black, White and Read Movie Theatre, which Stars Hollow loved. Their movies were classic: they had chosen movies that were black and white, from the Stooges to the Marx Brothers and even managed to slip in a color one now and then, _A Miracle on 34th Street_ being one of their favorites.

Looking back out the window and into the festive town that she loved so much, Rory was surprised to see Lulu as Holiday Holly, the mystical and totally made up Christmas figure that Taylor was set on having every year since before Rory could remember, pass outside the window. Lorelai had been Holiday Holly one year and then Gypsy even got the honors, only to prove to Taylor that she didn't want to be Holiday Holly even though she really did.

Rory actually expected Babette to get the honors this year, or at least Miss Patty, since she choreographed the dance that Holiday Holly always danced and the path through the town that usually came with being Holiday Holly. Miss Patty should at least get once chance to be Holiday Holly and Rory decided that next year would definitely be her year, no matter what.

Looking back into her almost empty coffee cup, Rory scrunched her nose and looked over to the counter where Luke was scrambling to cash out customers, get new ones seated, take their orders and get them out just as quickly. He wasn't usually this busy on Christmas Eve, but then again since Taylor had decided to advertise the town in every Connecticut newspaper claiming that they were _"the only small town in Connecticut host to Holiday Holly and the famous Luke's Diner, where you can get free fries on Christmas Eve."_

"Merry Christmas Ladies," Miss Patty's voice turned her attention away from the counter to the flirtatious dance teacher who had once tried to teach her how to dance and failed miserably.

"Merry Christmas Patty," Lane and Lorelai reciprocated a smile on their lips as Miss Patty started passing out her staple gifts of candy canes and tiny good luck beads that she had learned how to make on one of her many trips to exotic cities outside of Stars Hollow like…. Boston, even though Boston wasn't and isn't that exotic. Rory preferred Paris or Barcelona much more.

"Merry Christmas Miss Patty," Rory finally said as she moved to go and refill her coffee cup herself.

"Rory, can I steal you away for a couple of minutes?" Miss Patty's inquiry intrigued Rory. The once upon a time Hollywood starlet flashed her bright smile and silently asked her again. The last time Miss Patty had whisked her away, it was to dress her in one of her old dance outfits and see if it still had all its glitter that she remembered it having. But Rory had a feeling this time it would be different; she prayed it would be different.

"Sure, just let me get more coffee. Do you want some?" she asked, offering Patty the chance to get a free cup out of Luke's without him seeing it.

"No thanks, sugar. I'll be just outside the door," she responded and with that, walked right back out the door, waiting on her.

Rory quickly filled up three to go cups, one for her, Lane and Lorelai and watched to see if Luke saw her do this or not. Thankfully, he didn't. Rory knew if he did, he would go all fatherly on her and Lorelai wouldn't even try to save the day. Slipping out from behind the counter without him so much as noticing, Rory handed over the two cups of black coffee to Lane and Lorelai, telling them she would meet them at the house with Swedish Fish and Snocaps in tow.

Walking out the door, she stood by Miss Patty's side and waited for her to start with another Hollywood Starlet story that Rory loved hearing. Her starlet stories actually inspired her to write like a Hollywood writer sometimes, getting swept up with romantic one liners and sassy retorts from the heroine.

"Have you ever looked up at the stars and wondered if anyone else was out there?" Miss Patty asked, gazing up into the dark Stars Hollow filled with stars sky.

"Um…"

"Don't worry honey, it was rhetorical," Patty assured her and started to walk along the sidewalk leading over to Doose's Market, that was amazingly still open at almost ten o'clock at night. Rory was amazed that Taylor would stay open this late, but it was all good for her. That meant she could raid the shelves before Kirk got to it first, like he usually did, just to piss her off on Christmas Eve. "How has your holiday been so far, Rory?"

"So far, so good, although Mom's promise of Colin Farrell wrapped in nothing but a red ribbon under our tree is kind of freaking me out and causing me to rethink that whole not admitting her to a mental hospital thing."

"That's good to hear," Patty laughed at Rory's moment of truth, and "I have something for you."

"For me? But you already gave me your classic candy cane and bead. I like the bead, it's pretty," Rory told her, walking along slowly as she hung on to the present and her coffee with one hand. Her bead was pretty and was another one to add to her collection.

Throughout the years, Rory had acquired a varied collection of beads from cities across the world; from the handmade blue toned ones that Miss Patty had snatched from a London street vendor to the emerald and pink tie dye looking ones that were from selected cities in Spain and Italy that she never would reveal. Miss Patty wasn't the richest, but she knew how to bargain with anyone even when she was an ocean away and speaking a different language.

"I'm glad you like it Rory, but I have something else for you. Something that I think you'll like even better," she said, pulling Rory over to the side to fish out a small sized box not bigger than a bread box but not smaller than another piece of jewelry.

"Miss Patty," Rory started to object when she stopped her.

"Don't argue about it Rory, just take it," she said and then reminded her of the importance of the Christmas spirit and that giving was a part of the holiday experience, especially in this town. "I'm off to Brussels the morning after next, so if you don't see me before then, which I have no doubt you will, Merry Christmas, Rory."

"Thank you Miss Patty. I just wish I had something more to give you," Rory said as Patty stood there with nothing but a smile on her face when an idea popped into her head. "Hey, if you walk me home and we see Colin Farrell in that red ribbon, I'll be happy to give him to you."

Miss Patty laughed at her again, "Honey, I think your mother has claim on him," she started to turn around, heading back towards the town square to take Lulu back to the dance studio to change out of the Holiday Holly getup. "But hey, if you happen to find a muscular and hunky James Denton there, I'll take him. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," Rory softly said as she watched Miss Patty walk off and then looked down at her package. Wrapped in the thinnest sparkling silver paper with a multicolored ribbon strapped around it, Rory only had one thing on her mind now. Forget about Swedish Fish, Snocaps and whatever other kind of junk food that she could get her hands on in Doose's before it closed, all she wanted to know now is if she should open the gift now or wait until the clock struck midnight tonight.

Oh, the hard decisions that came with Christmas: there was the casting of Holiday Holly, the kind of tape to use so her mother wouldn't over tape the presents like last year and every year before that, contemplate how many cups of coffee that they could get before Luke noticed they were getting it for free and figuring out if you should open spontaneous gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.


	2. The Life and Times of a Hopeful Romantic

**Dear Wally**

**A story about a box that holds a treasure and finding out that that something you want in life is right in front of your nose**

**Notes**

Post-"You Jump, I Jump, Jack"  
Notes:  
+ Emily and Richard are not together, they are separated.  
+ Lorelai is still in Friday Night Dinner attendance.  
+ Paris and Doyle are already in a dating relationship.  
+ Rory and Dean are not together  
Inspiration: (song) Dear Wally by Aslyn

**Cast List**

Rory Gilmore, Logan Huntzberger, Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes, Miss Patty, Paris Gellar, Doyle Evans, Finn Crawford, Colin Richardson, Stephanie Fontaine, Rosemary Petersen, Robert Grimaldi, Isabel Gardner, Emily Gilmore, Richard Gilmore, Sookie St. James, Jackson Belleville, Kirk Gleason, Taylor Doose, Marty, Michel Gerard, Steven Sebastian Easton, Walter Andrew Karay, Elisabeth Clara Easton Karay

**Chapter Two  
The Life and Times of a Hopeful Romantic**

_Dear Wally, _

I've discovered that I have a love for books. Misses Hodges and Mr. David both have extensive collections in their homes that they allow me to read. Right now, I'm reading a book on poetry. There are so many and are written by many authors of whom are well known. The book reminds me of you and how you used to send me sweet poems through the post. I miss those letters and I miss you. I wish you were here by my side now, holding my hand and reading me this book of poems. I can imagine you reading it to me, those emerald eyes staring back into mine as you laugh about how each of the writers are hopeless romantics and I imagine me saying that I love the hopeless romantics. They give me something to hope for, turning me into a hopeful romantic myself. I wish you were here to take a midnight stroll with me, especially when the stars are up in the sky shining brightly and lighting the path down Main Street into the gazebo that is in the center of the town square. I now know why they named this place Stars Hollow. Hurry back, my love, hurry back.

Yours Always,  
Elisabeth

"Forget Colin Farrell, Ben Mackenzie and what's-his-name that you claim you're fantasizing about, I would give up all three of them just for Wally to come home to her," Lorelai swooned as she read the last letter to herself and looked over at Rory from across their table in Luke's Diner.

It had been a week since Christmas and from all the torn paper that was still lingering in their living room at their home, one would've figured that Colin Farrell had been unwrapped and that the girls were both off playing with their new "toys", so to speak. But that was hardly the case.

The "toys" that included new clothes, too many shoes with designer names on them in fashionable colors, jewelry that would make the Queen of England blush and of course, their must have movies and music-of-the-moment CDs didn't compare to the letters that Rory had found upon opening the keepsake box Miss Patty had given to her.

It was a plain box with a dull, violet stripe on the top. There wasn't anything special about it other than it begged to be opened. And the opening of the box had been the hard part: there wasn't exactly a place to open it at all. No latch, to keyhole, nothing. Only after staring at it for twenty minutes or so, Lane had figured it out, sliding the top of the box from side to side had revealed stacks of letters that were definitely older, opened and smelt of the ocean.

Since opening the box, neither of the Lorelai's had touched their once warm coffee mugs that were extra large, thanks to Luke and his experience with small coffee mugs and the Gilmore's. All three of them were too involved in the letters to even notice the few patrons watching them intently and they didn't even notice Luke and Kirk both taking bets as to when someone was going to speak. It was Lane who finally broke the ice again and Luke was pleased as Kirk handed him back all his money.

"I wonder how long these were in here. I mean, we obviously know it's been a while since anyone's read them by the smell alone," Lane said, waving her hand by her nose to avoid the salty smell of the ocean that she wasn't too fond of, plus the added odor of being cramped in a box for at least sixty years didn't appeal to her much either.

"We should so form a club now," Lorelai let out a deep sigh as she read the next letter in the pile.

"A club? What kind of club? The Trade-Hunky-Guys-in-for-Old-Letters club?" Rory asked, knowing well aware what she was getting herself into.

"A Hopeful Romantics club. I so have a new role model," she said, moving her position in the diner chair to let her legs stretch onto another beside her.

"I thought you declared Courtney Love your role model and I do recall a certain piece of paper being signed to prove such," Rory commented, finally touching the handle of the giant coffee mug in front of her and instantly scrunching up her nose when she tasted the cooling elixir of life. "Hey Luke," she said, looking towards the counter.

"I'm on it," he answered back, reaching for the fresh pot he just brewed and coming over to refurbish their mugs.

"Well, it's void. Elisabeth," Lorelai paused, searching for a last among the many opened letters for a last name for the girl, "whatever her last name may be, is now my role model."

"Good to know," Rory said, her nose still deep in one of the letters.

The letters were no doubt the confessions of a hopeful romantic and Rory secretly wondered if Wally ever made it back home. It was like curling up with a good book on the couch and losing yourself in the characters and setting of the plot. Ignoring Luke as he came to take their orders for the third time since they came into the diner today, Rory lost herself in the next letter she read.

_Dear Wally, _

My birthday was yesterday. I can hardly believe that I am now twenty four years old and expecting too. Misses Hodges surprised me yesterday with a small cake that she made for me. White icing and chocolate interior, it was one of the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted. I wish you could've been here to taste it with me. I hope you and the boys are all healthy and homesick. I know that you're not the only one with a girl here in the States, wishing, hoping and praying that you make it back in one piece. Give them my love and hurry back.

Yours Always,  
Elisabeth

Placing the letter back on the table, Rory let out a sigh as she reached for her coffee cup and laughed at Lorelai as she scrunched up her nose and kept reading her own letter. That club of theirs definitely had some possibility if they kept going at this rate.

Rory could imagine at least two meetings a week at Luke's, of course, with readings of the letters and themes of the week. Tee shirts would be a must and heavy discussions of if Wally ever came home would be at the top of the agenda for them every week.

Letting her mind wander back to the letters again, she hardly noticed Lane leaving to go to band practice and Lorelai getting up from her chair to kiss Luke and wave goodbye to her since she needed to and check out the Inn before Michel called her in a fit, like last year if Rory remembered oh so well.

"Hey, you doing laundry tonight?" Lorelai asked, her hand on the doorknob to Luke's.

Turning her head around towards her mother, Rory nodded her head yes.

"Throw my stuff in too, okay?"

"Okay. Is it all upstairs still?"

"Always."

As Lorelai left, Rory looked at the envelopes that lingered on the table. She would love to stay at Luke's all day, getting all the free coffee that she could and reading the letters, getting herself lost in Elisabeth's life and her love for a boy named Wally, who Rory assumed was her husband. But she couldn't stay here all day, as pointed out by Luke.

She had other things to do today: finish the laundry, clean up the living room since Lorelai would never get rid of the wrapping paper herself and start packing her things back up. Tomorrow she would be heading back to Yale, which meant one more movie night with her mother before she had to go back and ask Paris how her holiday was. Something told Rory that that would be even more interesting than the letters she held in her hand.

* * *

The Yale Daily News was now her fourth home. She had declared it when she snuck back into the room at three a.m. one night last week, Doyle had declared it with an stop-sleeping-here speech in his editor voice and Paris had declared it when she pushed Rory out of their room so she wouldn't have to hear her give her dating advice with what she had learned from Elisabeth.

Before the Christmas and holiday vacation, which was a week or so ago, Rory came and went as she pleased, but with every new letter that she read, it seemed that she was in the paper room every chance she got, researching and trying to find out who Elisabeth actually was. Before Miss Patty's mysterious present showed up in her possession, Rory wrote the articles, turned them in on time and then usually scooted right back out of the room. Going to hang out with Marty at his dorm or down at the pub and trying to avoid ridiculous banter with Logan was quickly replaced with another letter from Elisabeth to Wally. She was ready to set up a tent right there in Doyle's office or by her desk, just so every free chance she had she could investigate the mystifying love that she stumbled upon.

Elisabeth was a puzzle whose pieces had been scattered over sixty or so letters that had been stuffed in a box and Rory was itching to put it together. She only knew a few things about Elisabeth. She liked books, worked at the library once Mr. Michael David, the founder of the Stars Hollow library, had offered the job to her. She was also in love with a boy, Wally. She wrote him love letters and sent them across the ocean for him to read. Assuming that he was a solider in the army, Rory tried to research him first but Elisabeth kept begging for her attention.

She had a secret; Rory knew she had a secret. What it was about and who it involved were still a mystery…but they wouldn't be for long. Elisabeth was simply a mystery and Rory wanted to solve that mystery and along with putting the puzzle back together, the reporter in her thought it would also be a page turner…especially for the Yale Daily News.

Opening the door to her fourth home, Rory walked straight into Doyle's chaotic excuse for an editor's office, she didn't waste anytime getting to her point. She wanted to research Elisabeth and wanted the Yale Daily News to publish the article once she was done. "I have an idea," she announced, letting her bag slip down into the only chair that was facing his desk.

"I'll alert the National Guard," his sarcastic comment was dry as he took his feet down from the desk and looked up at her, ready to hear the pitch worthy of the front page.

It was normal to see her byline and articles on the front page, but this time, she furtively hoped that the front page would be all hers. Slapping some of the letters on his desk, she let leaned forward and let the edge of the desk support her while he looked them over.

Doyle knew about the letters, in fact, he had been watching her do nothing but read the letters in his paper room and had been listening to nothing but Paris yell at her while she tried to give her dating advice with him. Rory had her presentation down so if he said no right away she had fifty seven more points to persuade him into letting her write this article.

He darted his eyes up as soon as he saw the discolored and aged envelopes sitting on top of the rest of the articles that he needed to go through for next week's edition. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No, no kidding," she said seriously as he took out one of the letters and started to read it while she pitched the rest of the article to him. "Think of it Doyle, it's like a WWI diary that no one ever knew of. And this girl, Elisabeth, she's a mystery…doesn't write a lot about her past but her past makes up all of what she is and why she is writing these letters."

"And how do you plan to find all of this out?"

"Records, the internet, local armed forces branches, I have my sources."

"Okay, big question, why do you want to do this?" Doyle asked, leaning back in his chair again and let the letters slip from his hand to the desk.

Gathering the letters back up, Rory placed them back in her bag and gave him her reasoning. "I want to know who she is, why she's writing these letters, who Wally is, and why these letters were given to me. Elisabeth…she's a puzzle and I wanna put it together so maybe these letters can get to the rightful owner instead of me who just likes reading about the life and times of a hopeful romantic," she summed up in two short minutes and added onto the ending, "plus, it's not like I'm doing anything else why I'm here. You've been yelling at me for a new idea and here it is. Take it or leave it."

Doyle studied her for minute. He wasn't yelling and giving her all these insane reasons why she shouldn't do it, so that was a good sign. Reading Doyle was hard. He didn't have a specific expression for a specific mood, there was just blank and blank, not much to choose from so she really couldn't tell which way this article idea was going.

He leaned back more, almost falling out of his chair but quickly caught himself before Rory burst into laughter. His eyebrows were raised and she could tell that he was still thinking about her proposition but she was running out of patience.

"Two seconds Evans!" she yelled at him as he blinked out of his reverie and looked up at her. "I don't have all day ya know."

"How much time do you need?"

"Really?" she said, jumping for joy inside while her voice became squeaky at his answer. This was great, more than great actually. It was fantastic. This would benefit her and him, even though he didn't know it yet. Instead of sitting at her desk reading letters and doing nothing for the paper, she would be reading letters, doing research and actually doing something for the paper. In fact, she would be writing an article worthy of the front page. "Really?" she asked again, her hands coming together in front of her chest as she started to jump about in front of the desk.

"Don't go all jelly on me, Gilmore. How much time would it take you to write this article?"

"Um, off the top of my head?"

"Off the top of your head," he affirmed as the both of them saw Logan Huntzberger slip in and out of the office.

And since miracles seemed to be happening today, Rory was going to try her luck out. Logan never came to the paper for long. When he did, it was just to piss Paris off which although she and Logan had their differences, she found it funny. "A month, at least," she informed Doyle that pulled his attention back to her.

"A month? Are you nuts?"

"Well, if you ask my mother she would say yes all because she was the one who gave me that shot but at the moment, to you, no."

"We need features, Gilmore. I can't have you dedicating all your time to this one article," Doyle said, getting out of his chair and walking a straight line behind it.

"I can do fillers. Whatever the latest trend that Yale had going on, I'll cover it," she quickly said, not knowing if it was enough to save her article and convince him, but she prayed it was.

"Fillers? Gilmore, we aren't the Piggly Wiggly's Market News, we're a college newspaper that prints important world wide news," Doyle argued as Paris appeared in the doorway window and caught his attention. He looked back at her with his blank face and let out a deep sigh.

Rory placed her hands back on his desk and waited for anything to come out of his mouth, anything. She wanted this article to happen and wanted to find out more about Elisabeth.

"First filler is due Monday, Gilmore."

Rory jumped up again and rounded the desk to hug him joyously, causing Paris to bust in and give Rory part of her mind and Doyle a glimpse into her jealously. They had been officially dating for over a month, much to the surprise of everyone at the paper, but mostly to Rory.

It was an opposites-attract kind of relationship and while she had been skeptical of it lasting at first, she could see that Paris was happy and wasn't going to stand in the way of that. And because she didn't want to see a live reenactment of _Independence Day_ anytime soon, she backed off of Doyle and let Paris yell at her.

Paris snatched him away just as quick as Logan came and went from the news room and pulled him towards her side, still yelling. "Hands off, Gilmore!"

"Paris, I was thanking him, and you really need to lighten up. Like Elisabeth would say…" she started knowing Paris would shut her up the minute she mentioned it and she did.

Paris dragged her boyfriend right out of his office as Rory stood still and tried to calm herself down. But all she could think about was where to start. She had the letters and a first name but she wanted more. She wanted the backstory; the where she came from and the what she did before meeting Wally. And she also wanted the Wally story too. He was just a big a mystery as Elisabeth was.

Scooting herself out of Doyle's office with her bag on her shoulder, she wanted to get started right away but she needed reinforcements: coffee and chocolate.

* * *

She had to have the coffee, didn't she? She could blame her mother for this – for her insane addiction to all things chocolate-y and caffeinated. Rory rolled over on her side and opened her eyes to the red numbers plastered on her clock radio on the night stand. 1:36 a.m. She should've been asleep by now, in dreamland dreaming of her A-list Hollywood hunk, Josh Duhamel. But she wasn't.

Instead she was dreaming and thinking about Elisabeth and Wally and how faulty the internet could sometimes be. Spending the majority of the day researching Elisabeth, Wally and anything remotely related to World War I had only refreshed her knowledge of The Great War but didn't give her any sort of clue of where to go after that.

And the letters only gave her so much. There had been well over sixty letters in the box and she hadn't been through half of them yet. Hopefully the next forty that she was planning on reading would give her something other than the hopeful romantic wife she had read of. She wanted them to give her a last name, a glimpse of who Wally was and clues as to where Elisabeth came from. But there was nothing except for that Wally was a soldier who had been deployed over sea and was fighting for his country and Elisabeth was missing him dearly.

Flipping the blankets off of her and letting her legs crawl out from under them, Rory turned the bedside lamp on and reached for another letter. If she couldn't sleep, then she would at least read some more. Maybe she would find something else, a clue that she overlooked the past nineteen times she had read the letter. Elisabeth's words were soft and her penmanship was gentle; she wrote of Stars Hollow and the townsfolk, their quirkiness and all. Rory was used to that part and it was kind of nice to think that the town hadn't changed that much.

Elisabeth wrote of Misses Hodges and the kind neighbor she had been thus far. The year at the top of the envelope said 1917, putting it right when the States had entered The Great War and there was the postmark that sent Rory into SuperWoman mode. Now she knew what to research.

Reaching for her jeans on the floor and a plain tee shirt in her dresser, she tugged them on in a hurry and slipped on her slippers. She had to do this before it left her thoughts. The postmark was the clue; it was what she should've been concerned with all along.

And since Doyle had been staying with Paris for a while now in her own room, Rory grabbed the key to the news room out of his jacket pocket that was lying across the couch and slipped out the door, doubting he would emerge before the rooster crowed in the morning hours. She couldn't sleep and passing by the chance to wake her mother up out of bed, Rory was going to research. If she could get into the post office archives and find out all the silly little details that people skimmed over, then maybe she could get some sleep and maybe get a little piece of Elisabeth's past figured out.

* * *

He wasn't quite used to this yet. Logan had been sneaking in to the news room at the earliest possible hours for a while now and he still wasn't used to it. Maybe it was those damn Superman comics that he used to read that had his mind thinking that a news room was bustling even at three a.m. in the morning. But it wasn't. Maybe it was something to do with the college thing and the doors being locked or maybe it had to do with Finn's 99 bottles of beer on the wall party that was going on at this exact moment at the dorm.

Logan had tried to stay and have a good time with his best buddies, but he didn't have the time tonight. Tonight, he had to study. Tonight, he had to finish his paper and turn it in the morning, unless his grade would be shot and one of his many credit cards supplied by his father would miraculously disappear from his wallet.

So here he was, studying for a test he knew that he would ace all because of the thorough notes transcribed by the lovely Hilary and writing a paper that Professor Thoms would finally love to see. It was two weeks too late as it was and if he didn't finish it, that would be another credit card disappearing and result in him actually having to work at one of his father's newspapers.

He wouldn't really mind the last bit but the thought of actually having to take orders from his father day to day, Logan pushed the thought straight out of his mind and looked back to the computer screen that was shining brightly against his face. The small light sitting atop the desk was the only other illumination in the room as Logan tried to concentrate on the last paragraph of his paper. Summing up the details of Arthur Conan Doyle's life in one paragraph was impossibility, well, for him it was.

He had been a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's for a long time, getting caught up in the adventures of the famous Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick, Dr. Watson. Letting his fingers fly over the keyboard to complete the assignment that was twenty percent of his Advanced English Literature grade, Logan wasn't expecting company this late at night, er, early in the morning.

The door scraped open as a girl with a high ponytail with a red hoodie on and fuzzy blue slippers walked into the dark news room and she rounded a desk, sitting down into a rolling chair in one movement. It was like she had a routine and did this every night. But Logan knew better.

Rory Gilmore was not the one to wake up in the middle of the night every night just to sneak in here and write an article. No, Rory Gilmore was the one he imagined snug in her bed at this time of night, with or without the fuzzy blue slippers. He could see feetsy pajamas covered in teddy bears or some other cutsy, whimsical objects on them. It was kind of funny as he imagined it and leaned back into his seat, watching as she completely ignored him over in his corner. It was either that or she just didn't see him.

He was willing to bet on the latter for her. She was the studious one, the one that actually had his full and undivided attention from the moment she corrected Finn in her uptight manner. Logan would like to think that he and his band of culprits had since loosened her up, but that wasn't a bet he was willing to make considering that his credit cards seemed to be up for discussion at all times.

She turned on her computer with one push of a button and he looked on as she dug out papers from her shoulder bag that was more than full when she walked into the news room a minute or so ago. And the papers were still coming. Logan couldn't resist, he had to say something or he could just laugh at it. He couldn't decide on which one, so he did both.

"That's at lot of paper, even for a news room," he said, watching as she looked around the room before spotting him in his own corner.

Her back straightened up as she sent him a forced smile and he was ultimately forced to get up from his comfortable position and bug her about what she was actually doing here at three a.m. in the morning. Just when he thought he had Rory Gilmore all figured out, she surprised him again.

"What are you doing here Huntzberger? Aren't you supposed to be with one of your Barbies?"

"Barbies? Is that what you're calling them these days?"

"If those tiny, plastic shoes fit…" Rory drifted off when he approached her desk and she turned her head back to the computer. Moving around her mouse and deciding to try and ignore him was an invitation for him to be nosy, like a Huntzberger was.

They were letters…upon letters upon letters. They were old, smelt of salt and were musty. Like they had been boxed up for a long time and then by the postmark in the upper right hand corner by the stamps, he knew that they had been boxed up. His curiosity got the best of his then. Letting the thoughts of his paper and the test tomorrow go, he made himself a spot on the edge of her desk and took out one of the letters…only to be denied the pleasure of reading one.

"No," she snapped at him, taking the envelope and note from his hands and placing it on top of her pile again.

"What? What did I do?"

"No, you," she pointed her finger directly in his chest and he knew she was meaning every word that she was going to say, "are not getting your paws on this story. This is my story."

"I didn't say it wasn't. Call me nosy."

"I could call you a lot of other things, Logan."

"Oooo, a threat. I like the threats," he smiled down at her but knew it wasn't going to work. She might be pretty this late a night with absolutely no makeup on in fuzzy blue slippers but she was still stubborn and just a tad grumpy. Of course, this wasn't a part of her normal routine either so it was to be expected.

This was her story and he wouldn't challenge that statement for anything, not even if it got him out of Finn's annual cross-dressing party that was sure to come up sometime in the next month. No, he wasn't going to challenge her; he was just an innocent bystander whose curiosity was definitely going to kill him, especially if it involved Rory.

"What's your story about?" he continued to badger her. She just rolled her eyes at that comment and continued on her search for something in the computer. "At least tell me what you're looking for, maybe I could help?"

"You, help? Hmmph," Rory smirked at the notion.

"Fine. Suit yourself, but I can already tell you that you're looking in the wrong place," he said, getting up off of her desk and pointing towards her computer screen.

_One, Two, Three, Four, Five._ Five more counts and she should be begging for his help, it was a given, he thought as he printed off his report, saved it and gathered his own shoulder bag up. But she didn't ask, instead, he could feel her gaze on him. He could tell she wanted to know what he was thinking but also wanted to prove him wrong. And she was good at doing that.

So, he swung his bag over his shoulder and started to walk off, stopping off at her desk for one last glare. He knew he couldn't go to bed without one more glare. Knocking his fist on the oak wood, she lifted her eyes to meet his. "Have fun," he told her, flashing her a smile just because he could and knew that it would probably tick her off.

He seemed to have that affect on people, especially girls. And in this case, this girl was special. Heck, any girl who would stand with him twenty minutes debating Darwin's theories just because she could was the definition of special. He just hoped that he could convince her that he was too. He didn't want to be a part of her story but he at least wanted to know what it was about.

It intrigued him. Old letters that smelt of salt and had that dusty look to them could have any one intrigued. Something told Logan that Rory had a mystery up her sleeve and he loved a good mystery.


	3. The Power of a Modern Day Mystery

**Dear Wally**

**A story about a box that holds a treasure and finding out that that something you want in life is right in front of your nose**

**Notes**

Post-"You Jump, I Jump, Jack"  
Notes:  
+ Emily and Richard are not together, they are separated.  
+ Lorelai is still in Friday Night Dinner attendance.  
+ Paris and Doyle are already in a dating relationship.  
+ Rory and Dean are not together  
Inspiration: (song) Dear Wally by Aslyn

**Cast List**

Rory Gilmore, Logan Huntzberger, Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes, Miss Patty, Paris Gellar, Doyle Evans, Finn Crawford, Colin Richardson, Stephanie Fontaine, Rosemary Petersen, Robert Grimaldi, Isabel Gardner, Emily Gilmore, Richard Gilmore, Sookie St. James, Jackson Belleville, Kirk Gleason, Taylor Doose, Marty, Michel Gerard, Steven Sebastian Easton, Walter Andrew Karay, Elisabeth Clara Easton Karay

**Chapter Three  
The Power of a Modern Day Mystery**

_Dear Wally, _

Mr. David has finally don't it, after weeks of avoiding the subject at all costs, he has done it. For the past week or so, he kept creating tiny obstacles for himself and it was a wonder that he didn't trip over them in the process or scare Miss Thomson away. But he didn't; in fact, Louise and Mr. David are now officially courting. She really is a lovely girl, considering that she loves to talk about everything and anything. Perhaps that was why Mr. David was creating those obstacles, or it could be why he is attracted to her as well. But with brilliant brunette locks and rosy cheeks that highlight her beaming smile, she compliments the quiet and sophisticated Mr. David with his contrasting blond tresses and hazel eyes that are always hiding behind those spectacles on his nose. But they do make a handsome couple. Like we do. Don't you think?

Yours Always,  
Elisabeth

'Enter the Mystery' were the words that flowed through his mind every time he saw her now. That's what she was: a complete and undeniable mystery. Logan was usually an expert at getting through to a girl, flashing one of his signature smiles and having her in the palm of his hand from that moment forward until either he or she graduated or he lost interest. This one in particular was special. This one was the mystery that he was determined to crack all on his own.

Albert Einstein once wrote that the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. He never fully appreciated the great man of science's words before now. Now, his words became so clear and understandable to Logan that he would think that Mr. Einstein himself was referring to him.

He wanted to crack the mystery that was Lorelai Leigh Gilmore. Every time he saw her now, her nose was buried in a letter. They had her undivided attention and it was hard enough to get a glare from her since that night. Now, in order for him to actually get a glimpse of her pretty little face, if only for a second or two, was a large cup of coffee swung under her nose. It usually worked too. But today was a different kind of day. Today she didn't care about the coffee; she just wanted to get him off of her tail.

"What is it this time Huntzberger? I'm late," she dryly said, taking the coffee out of his hand instantaneously and rolling her eyes.

"Just wanted to see how my favorite reporter was doing, that's all," he tried the charming card again. He was good at playing that card and no matter how many times he failed with her; he would still try it to see if it would work.

"Logan," she stated his name matter-of-factly, clearly wanting to get him out of her way and back on her path to wherever she was heading to. "I'm late. I'm seriously late and Professor Hendricks hates the late-comers and I have to have a filler on Doyle's desk by three today, so if you don't move or tell me exactly why you're stopping me for the fifth time today, I'll move you myself."

"Like I said before Ace, the threats are good. Keep them coming," he quipped and laughed a bit at that serious Gilmore glare that he was hooked on. The very first time he had run into her at one of the many coffee kiosks around campus, she had been submerged in a letter and only paused to give him that glare. It turned into a daily thing. He would track her down, just to get that glower. The second time he had bumped into her at the same kiosk, she had even surprised herself when she actually spoke. Even if it was only to get out of her way, it was still a thing that kept him bumping into her every chance he got. He liked making a habit out of it. "Relax Ace, I'm just here to keep you sane," he added on, noting her tense stance beside him, "and to keep you caffeinated," he motioned towards the large coffee cup in her hand.

"Oh, yeah, thanks," she paused for a moment, silently contemplating why on earth Logan Huntzberger, the privileged Yale Male with a thousand privileged Yale Females begging for his attention, was buying her, the bookworm and ace reporter, coffee. "This is a bribe."

"Excellent deduction," Logan answered gleefully, "but that's not it. I just thought you could use a good cup of Joe."

"Cup of Joe? Okay, now you have me wondering about your sanity. What do you want?" she scrunched her nose, creased her eyes together and stopped her gait to turn and look at him straight on.

"I come to you as a friend, nothing more, nothing less and ask you," Logan started sincerely, "how is your story going? I'm anxious to read the next great writing wonder of Rory Gilmore."

* * *

She stared at him blankly. What was he doing? Was he trying to flatter her or drive her insane? If he was, they were both working. She was determined not to turn into one of those girls who were easily swayed by one smirk off of his chin, but that determination was slowly dwindling down.

First there was the constant stalking, which was very annoying then there was the coffee or Cup of Joe as he was now dubbing it. And then of course, there was the story. She should've known that it was all about the story since the very beginning.

It was had only been three days since that late night when she was just as surprised to find him there as he was her. She half expected him to be out drinking with Finn, who still had yet to remember her name, or at the least be out with Brittany or Tiffany or one of those other girls that had names that sounded like they were in the Mickey Mouse Club. Yet, he wasn't.

And judging from the smirk permanently plastered on his face and the blonde socialite that was headed for their direction, Rory deducted that she only had at least two minutes to wrap this notch in his timeline up and so she indulged him with vague details.

"It's fine."

"Fine? It's just fine?" Logan questioned as his eyebrows kept making funny expressions on his face. It was like watching Groucho Marx in any Marx brother movie minus the bushy, black color. Rory found that she much preferred the thinner, lighter eyebrow compared to the former.

"Yes, it's fine," she stated again. Yep, vague details, that's what she was giving him and that was all he was going to get.

"Doesn't really look like it," he motioned towards her shoulder bag that was already bulging with letters of every kind plus some random ones from Elisabeth. Then on top of that, there were the text books and notebooks that tended to fill up her bag fast.

"It's fine Logan, I mean it," she crossed her arms after tossing the now empty coffee cup into the nearby trash bin and waited for him to counteract, knowing for a fact that is was going to come.

"Whatever you say Ace, but just so you know, that little filler last week on the French Club's trip to Paris and talks of exchange students…kind of lame," he gestured with his hands while the blonde socialite strode up beside him. "I'm just waiting for that next article that is written like it should be published in the New York Times."

Rory wasn't really paying attention to the last part as the blonde curled her arm up and around his neck and he smiled down at her. Rolling her eyes at the display and thinking that both of them didn't deserve each other, she quickly wrapped up their conversation, if it was one at all.

"I'll publish the article when it's all done, Huntzberger. So until then, the fillers are what you'll see. If you want to see it sooner, you can help. You know where I'll be."

And with the sharp turn on her heel, she walked off, feeling triumphant in the battle that she had just been in. He wouldn't take up the offer, she knew it, or at least, she hoped he wouldn't.

* * *

It was very interesting from her point of view. She wasn't far off, but only a few steps away from them as they discussed some type of article and coffee. Stephanie leaned her back up against the campus' wall next to Rosemary and sipped on her strawberry smoothie, wondering if anyone else saw what she just did. She wasn't a matchmaker or one of those people who deliberately set people up on dates just to see if they would make a cute couple. But for Logan, she would be.

He was one of her oldest friends and she knew before anyone else how Logan was. He didn't act like this with any other girl. For this one, he brought her coffee and she made him smile. Making him smile was a big gold star in Stephanie's book. And the line was getting on her nerves.

As the quote goes: you can't leave it all up to fate, sometimes you have to lend her a helping hand. And that's exactly what Stephanie was going to do. First item on the list: the line goes poof!


	4. Tiny Little Interludes

**Dear Wally**

**A story about a box that holds a treasure and finding out that that something you want in life is right in front of your nose**

**Notes**

Post-"You Jump, I Jump, Jack"  
Notes:  
+ Emily and Richard are not together, they are separated.  
+ Lorelai is still in Friday Night Dinner attendance.  
+ Paris and Doyle are already in a dating relationship.  
+ Rory and Dean are not together  
Inspiration: (song) Dear Wally by Aslyn

**Cast List**

Rory Gilmore, Logan Huntzberger, Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes, Miss Patty, Paris Gellar, Doyle Evans, Finn Crawford, Colin Richardson, Stephanie Fontaine, Rosemary Petersen, Robert Grimaldi, Isabel Gardner, Emily Gilmore, Richard Gilmore, Sookie St. James, Jackson Belleville, Kirk Gleason, Taylor Doose, Marty, Michel Gerard, Steven Sebastian Easton, Walter Andrew Karay, Elisabeth Clara Easton Karay

**Chapter Four**

**Tiny Little Interludes**

_Dear Wally,_

_Your letters are far and few between since I last wrote to you. I know you'll just write to me that a war is going on and you have to command your crew but I miss you writing to me and telling me of the awful jokes that Petty Officer Johnson is telling everyone. But I will still write to you nevertheless. Rand came over the other day to visit with me and happened to notice that loose porch railing that you conveniently forgot about before shipping off. He and Daniel are riding back the day after tomorrow to fix it for me or us, I should say. I know now why I married you – it was for your brother's carpentry skills. I love you._

_Yours Always,_

_Elisabeth_

Sometimes you had to take a breather, right? To breathe, to smell the cool, crisp January air around you and just enjoy, or try to enjoy the frosty Connecticut winter that was making its presence known outside the clear cut windows of the news room. Students had passed by, some in a mad dash to get out for the rest of the weekend and some were at a normal pace, taking their time to work on whatever story they were working on and trying to please Doyle in every which way so they would get top billing in the next issue of the Yale Daily News.

It was Saturday, the official day for all things in the wonderful world of Date-land and that's what they all were scrambling for; to get out of this room that reeked of work and school and enjoy their weekend. From first dates to blind dates to four month anniversary dates, you could circle around the colossal campus and see the couples getting started on their dates and drowning in their own kind of cuteness. Rory wasn't a part of that. Instead, she was in the news room, twirling around in her chair and deciding what to do next.

That was always the hard thing to decide: what to do next. She had been researching Elisabeth for over two weeks now and had done everything possible without breaking any laws. All she knew about what she had promised Doyle a full and front page article on was a postmark that laid claim to the original post office that once upon a time sat in Stars Hollow and a lovesick, expectant mother who filled her days by chatting with her neighbor and reading anything she could get her hands on. And Rory was actually frustrated with that.

Staring out the clear cut windows, Rory thought about the letters and the soft cursive writing that had faded against the pieces of paper. She loved how Elisabeth wrote – how she pined for a man that was halfway across the world fighting for the greater good and still stole her heart everyday. She loved how Elisabeth wrote of Stars Hollow – the quirky town that was still just that, quirky and a wave of comfort washed over her as a smile emerged on her face and she saw Marty pass the window. Even the fact that Elisabeth's Misses Hodges mirrored Babette was comforting. Elisabeth's words were…lovely, if you could use that word for her words; especially about the way of life in 1917.

But she would love Elisabeth even more if she would tell her something about herself. An eye color, her favorite flower in the springtime, more gossip about Mr. David and his courting rituals or even a last name. Rory would love a last name. If she had a last name of any kind, besides Hodges and David, then this article would get a major helping hand, Doyle would get off of her back and the letters could finally find a place to call home.

Her dorm room, her Stars Hollow home and not even her grandparent's house, where she would sometimes go to think and read them was not their home. Rory imagined their home to be with a wondering granddaughter or grandson. They would be researching just like her for a connection to find their long lost grandmother or mother. It was a mystery nonetheless and it was one that had all of her.

Twirling back around in her chair and facing the computer screen once again, Rory watched as old newspaper clippings of the war skimmed by her eyes and were never-ending. Letting out a deep sigh, she looked down to one of the letters and began reading again. Maybe this time around, the sixth time if she remembered correctly, she would pick something up, something she had missed before.

Too bad that that would have to wait as her cell phone rang loudly on top of her desk and took everyone's attention from their work to her. She suddenly felt like she was a thoroughbred in the middle of a herd of zebras or more likely, in Luke's Diner being yelled at by her makeshift Dad. But the ring was a dead giveaway. _Maniac_ was only reserved for the one and only Lorelai Gilmore.

"Tell me that this is Miss Patty and you borrowed my mom's phone just to annoy Luke and tell me why one earth you gave me this box that had a unsolved mystery inside it," Rory breathed out all in one breath and waited for Miss Patty's voice to come over the receiver, but luck was just not on her side today.

"Sorry babe, but if you want, I can dig up some juicy gossip for you because Babette and Mrs. Young are standing right outside the door," Lorelai offered to her daughter who was sounding just as frustrated as she looked. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I just need a miracle."

"I hear that those are hard to come by."

"I heard that too," Rory answered back, leaning back in her chair and looking back over at the computer screen, noticing that the slideshow had finally stopped. "So, what's up?"

"Oh, yea that, I just wanted to see if you were free for ice cream?"

"Ice cream?"

"Yea."

"Mom, I'm at Yale," Rory informed her mother just in case Lorelai was setting up the hologram machine too many times again. The hologram machine was meant to be used for practical jokes and those were reserved for Taylor. "You're in Stars Hollow."

"Not the point. See, the way I see it, you can get out of that place you call your fourth home and walk yourself down to one of the coffee carts or cafeteria and get a smoothie or whatever and we could talk and have ice cream."

"And I'm willing to bet my entire college tuition that you just pulled out that excuse from the very large top hat on the kitchen table and what you really want to talk about is Elisabeth," Rory said, moving her mouse all over the place to either exit or minimize the several programs open on her computer screen.

Reaching for her purse, Rory held the mobile phone to her ear and listened as the sound of Lorelai's engine shut off and she lightheartedly walked out of the news room.

"No fair, Harry told you," Lorelai pouted.

"Harry?"

"The top hat. I gave him a name since he's been staying at our place for a while now and it just seemed right. Like Luke's toolbox is Bert and your cast was Casty," Lorelai paused as she waltzed into Luke's Diner, "so, tell me about Elisabeth."

"You know as much as I do," Rory let her worries go as Lorelai asked, "what did I get myself into?"

* * *

Isabel Gardner was a dream date. She had that classic beauty about her that screamed runway model or even better, heiress to a Hollywood regime. She was one of those girls that made everyone weak in the knees when she passed by and had you begging at her feet to spend at least two minutes with her. And tonight, she just happened to be Logan's dream date.

But she wasn't the girl he was thinking about just now. Instead, he was thinking of a bookworm. The kind that spent all day in the news room chasing leads, so to speak, that would hopefully lead her to the end of her mystery. The kind that spent every waking minute going on wild goose chases only to end up right where she started. He couldn't tell you why he was thinking of her, he just was.

It had been six days since the last time he purposely cut her off and refreshed her caffeine fix and for some reason, he was actually missing her. He never missed anyone and most of his friends could vouch for that. Heck, she was just a girl…a girl who somehow had slipped into his life without him really noticing and left a lingering trail. She was just a girl who, unlike the others, wasn't interested in him romantically. She was just interested in a story and that's what he liked about her.

Standing in front of the floor length mirror, Logan looked over his chosen outfit for the night and let out a sigh, thinking that this was as good as it was going to get. With his staple outfit on, the black shoes, black pants, black shirt combo, he turned around to find Stephanie beaming with a mischievous smile on her face and silently reassessing his ensemble.

"Would it kill you to wear some color once in a while?" she offered and strolled into his room, brushing past him and looking into his closet.

"What's wrong with what I have on?" Logan looked down his black upon black ensemble that he was quite content with and back up at her as she reached into the back of his closet, pulling out some of the shirts that he never wore.

"Okay, one, black is not the only color in the rainbow and two, this is Isabel Gardner," she refreshed his mind into the wonderful world of color and who he had a date with tonight.

"I know this is Isabel Gardner."

"Okay, good. Then I suppose you know that she favors guys who like to wear color, right?" Stephanie raised her eyebrow and picked out a soft green shirt from the pile on his bed.

Taking it off the hanger, she laid it over his desk chair and started to help him out of his jacket. Logan couldn't believe this. He was literally being undressed and dressed again by his best girl friend. He was actually taking advice from a girl who had previously loved to sabotage all of his dates with every girl in his so called line that she insisted that he had.

Slipping on the green shirt over his upper frame, he couldn't help but think Stephanie had something up her sleeve. Of course she had something up her sleeve, she was Stephanie; the girl who he had known since sophomore year in high school.

They had met at one of the many dances between Andover and Franklin Academies and had hit it off, friendship wise. She was a good friend, had been through most of his rebellious stages and introduced him to his other best friends, known as Finn and Colin or more commonly Abbott and Costello these days. But nonetheless, ever since he had reentered Yale in the fall, she had resumed her role in sabotaging each and every one of his dates and now with her being gung-ho on this date…Logan had to be suspicious.

Looking at her straight in the eyes as she sat back on his bed, he buttoned up the shirt and started to suspect the worst. "What are you up to?"

"What?"

"You. What are you up to?"

"What kind of question is that Logan?" she countered back and kicked off her shoes.

"The kind that deserves an answer. Spill."

"I don't have anything to spill," she paused as she smiled and tried to divert the conversation to something else. "What time are you supposed to pick her highness up?" Stephanie referred to Isabel, knowing that she was the reigning prima donna on campus.

"Seven. You're avoiding the question," he pointed out as she got up from his bed and dragged him out into the common room where Finn was entertaining a random red head that he had somehow put under his spell. "What? Where?"

"Too many questions, Huntz. You have exactly ten minutes to make it across campus to pick Princess Isabel up and if you're one minute late, you will never have another date with her even if you are a Huntzberger," Stephanie said in one breath as they reached the door and she practically shoved him out of his own room.

"But you're up to something," he still insisted. He knew her better than that.

"Well, yeah," she shrugged her shoulders and started to close the door. "But that's for me to know and you to find out."

The door shut in front of his face and he smirked to himself. This was classic Stephanie and he wouldn't have it any other way. Glancing down to his watch, he noticed that seven was fast approaching and if Stephanie was right, which somehow seemed to be all of the time, he needed to speed up his gait. And he headed off, green shirt and all.

* * *

Stephanie turned around and leaned up against the back of the door. This was good, this was very good. A plan she didn't have but she did have an agenda; an agenda that included Colin and Finn whether they liked it or not. Rosemary was already on her side the minute that she mentioned disassembling Logan's line.

Of course every other girl on campus was against the idea but unlike any other girl, neither Rosemary nor Stephanie had any interest in claiming Logan for themselves. Rosemary had laid claim on Finn for some odd reason and anyone who wanted to mess with her was in deep trouble. So that meant that the red head sitting on the couch with Finn was in it. Stephanie, on the other hand, was not in the market for anyone in particular. Although the vibes she was getting from Colin were mixed at the moment.

Looking over to the couch where Finn was pathetically trying to get past first base with the Scottish exchange student who had been on campus for less than a week, Stephanie decided to put her idea in motion. First step: tear Finn away from the red head and that was going to be a challenge in itself.

"Finney," she called out, leaning on the back of the couch and lodging herself in between the two. "Hi," she smiled at him.

"Hello Sheila," he responded, still staring at Susie or Chloe, Stephanie couldn't remember her name and she doubted if Finn did as well.

"I need a favor, Finney."

"What would this favor entail?"

"Would you happen to know where Logan keeps those little black books of his?"

* * *

"This is a guy's dream date," Logan reminded himself as he approached Isabel's dorm room door with twenty four carat gold numbers on the side. She was an heiress with a bigger trust fund than he had, of course she would have twenty four carat gold numbers decorating her door.

Reaching out to knock on her door, he took one last glance down at his outfit and wondered why he listened to Stephanie at all and wore the green shirt. He liked the black, he should be wearing black. Shaking his head of the thought, he was acting like a girl and he was anything but a girl. He just wanted to look good for his date with Isabel. Any guy would want to look good for Isabel, just like any girl wanted to look good for him.

Glancing around the vestibule, he noticed Yvette walking up to her door as well with a two bags full of junk food in her arms. Yvette was Isabel's roommate, for lack of a better word. Yvette was hardly there, being one of those girls who traveled aboard for all her studies and had internships at every business in New Haven. That left little time for anything else, including the politics of roommates and dating relationships. Walking up towards her to help her with the overflowing bags, she was equally surprised that he was a bit early to pick Isabel up.

"Hey Huntz, are you here for Isa?"

"Yea, we have a date," he told her and waited as she opened up the door for the both of them. Confused, she looked back at him and stared.

"No you don't."

"Yes we do."

"No you don't," she continued to argue with him, taking the bag fro his arms and setting it on the table that was conveniently close to the door.

"I believe we do. I should know, I mean, I did ask her out."

"Yea, for yesterday."

"What?" Now, he was confused. It was Saturday, the day he had Isabel's name under in his calendar. They were supposed to go out today.

"Yea, you were supposed to take her out yesterday. Tonight she's out with Gordon Hensley," Yvette informed him, unpacking most of the junk food on the coffee table for her study session with her buddies Ben, Jerry and Tony the Tiger.

"Gordon Hensley? The Gordon Hensley?" Logan questioned. How could this happen? He had a schedule. Each day of the week was a different letter, a different girl and Saturday was Isabel. He was sure of it. He looked at his calendar before he left the dorm, before Stephanie had pushed him out and Isabel's name was written on Saturday, Danielle was Friday and Hilary was Sunday. What was going on?

"The one and only. She tried to call you, but I guess you were out last night too, right?"

"Right."

"I would invite you to stay and join me, but I kind of had a date with Ben and Jerry here, so, if you don't mind," Yvette motioned towards the door. Like Rory, she was the only other girl on campus who didn't want to date him. And he liked that about her.

"Right, I'll just…" Logan motioned towards the door and let himself out, hearing the door latch and Yvette deadbolt the lock behind him.

What was he going to do now? Saturday was date night or LDB night. The LDB thing was two weekends from now and him without a date on date night was unheard of. Going back to the dorm with Finn spread out on his couch with whoever the random redhead was was just not an option.

But this wasn't a tragedy. He really didn't feel like going out with Isabel anyway, so it wasn't a total loss but he didn't want to go back to his dorm and finish that paper that Professor Hiller was bugging him to write. Logan had an idea then and there was no place he'd rather be. Two quarts of Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey coming up.

* * *

Food. That was all she could think about as each and every computer screen flashed with different international headlines about anything that had to do with The Great War. She was starving but even the thought of leaving the news room for a minute was not an option. She was too tired to get up and desperately wanted to stay in case anything came up.

Which, by the way things were looking, wasn't going to happen any time soon. What she wouldn't give for that miracle to happen right now. She would even let Logan help her with all of this if that meant a last name, anything pertaining to Wally and Elisabeth's life or her secret. She would even let him take the whole article over if it meant finding out something.

Letters were spread over her desk starting from April 1917, when Elisabeth had started writing small notes to Wally. She would write about her worries and how scared she was that she would be losing him. Faded black ink told of Stars Hollow and the few businesses that they had; the life that was.

The notes had become letters when Wally had left for Europe and Elisabeth wrote him faithfully every day, telling him of America's happenings and his family coming to check on her periodically. The letters she had read had gone until November of 1918 when WWI had ended. She could only assume that was when Wally came home but there was no indication that he did.

Her stomach grumbled one more time as she let her eyes dart over the scattered letters. That miracle wasn't looking all that bad right now, the only problem being if she could spot it in the mess on her desk. Darting her eyes towards the computer and opening up a new search engine, Rory logged in to check her e-mail.

Since there was nothing else that she could do without committing at least five different felonies, checking if Lane had sent her those pictures that she had been bragging about for the past two weeks of Brian getting hit on by blonde heiresses. If she did, that would make it on her desktop for sure.

And there it was. They always said that a picture is worth a thousand words and if anyone saw this picture, there would be at least three thousand words. Rory laughed to herself as she scrolled the different variations of Brian and the blond beauty at the Hep Aliens latest gig in Hartford.

She was laughing so much and paying attention to the pictures that she hardly noticed Logan standing in front of her desk. Startled when the sound of a paper bag started to crumble, Rory stood up from her chair and was greeted by a smug socialite.

"What are you doing here?"

"No need to thank me, Ace. Just stopped by to take up that offer," he nodded towards her and started to take off his jacket.

"Offer?" she raised her eyebrows at his statement. When did she offer him anything?

"Yea, you know that offer."

"You're a little vague on details here, Logan. When and why on earth would I offer you anything?"

"I believe your exact words were that if I wanted to see the article sooner, I could help and that I knew where you would be. So, here I am, wanting and willing to help to see this article complete with contraband," he motioned towards the bag that still had yet to be emptied of its contents.

"Contraband?" her interest was now peaked. "What kind of contraband?"

"How does Cherry Garcia or Chunky Monkey sound?" he offered to her.

So she wasn't really ready to let him help her but considering that he was loaded with contraband and probably could get away with the breaking the law thing considering that he was a Huntzberger and well known with the federal and local governments, she was willing to let him in.

"I'd say hand over the Chunky Monkey," she said, trying to reach her hand into the bag, but he caught it before she could reach the round container that held her second favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream in it. "Logan…"

"I'll give you the Chunky Monkey, but what do I get?"

She knew it would come to this: a game of cat and mouse; tit for tat. Reaching into the stack of envelopes that were on the edge of the desk, she grabbed onto one and reluctantly handed it to him. Alone, she was helpless but maybe with a little help she could get somewhere. Rory would be the first to admit that Logan wasn't her first pick for the assistant gig but he would do.

"Now, was that so hard?" he toyed with her taking the letter and letting her hand loose to grab the Chunky Monkey out of the bag.

"Don't push it Huntzberger. Remember, I'm the one running the show."

"Got it," he answered, taking a seat in front of her desk and flipping open the aging envelope. "Just tell me one thing before I get started," he added on, watching her dig right into the ice cream. He probably should've brought a back-hoe for her.

"One thing."

"Do you really have a tent set up in Doyle's office?"


	5. A Night of Almosts and Whatifs

**Dear Wally**

**A story about a box that holds a treasure and finding out that that something you want in life is right in front of your nose**

**Notes**

Post-"You Jump, I Jump, Jack"  
Notes:  
+ Emily and Richard are not together, they are separated.  
+ Lorelai is still in Friday Night Dinner attendance.  
+ Paris and Doyle are already in a dating relationship.  
+ Rory and Dean are not together  
Inspiration: (song) Dear Wally by Aslyn

**Cast List**

Rory Gilmore, Logan Huntzberger, Lorelai Gilmore, Luke Danes, Miss Patty, Paris Gellar, Doyle Evans, Finn Crawford, Colin Richardson, Stephanie Fontaine, Rosemary Petersen, Robert Grimaldi, Isabel Gardner, Emily Gilmore, Richard Gilmore, Sookie St. James, Jackson Belleville, Kirk Gleason, Taylor Doose, Marty, Michel Gerard, Steven Sebastian Easton, Walter Andrew Karay, Elisabeth Clara Easton Karay

**Chapter Five**

**A Night of Almosts and What-ifs**

_Dear Wally,_

_I've had the most amazing day today. The library was very thin today, giving me time to catch up on some much needed reading. Mr. David has let me raid his private collection and I've just finished reading _Pride and the Prejudice _for the third time and that's when it happened. I felt him…or her. It was the most amazing feeling that I ever could've felt in my life. I wish you were here to feel it; to place your hand upon my emerging tummy and feel your son or daughter move. I only hope you make it home safe so the next time we decide to do this, you can be here and you can feel this miracle inside of me that we created._

_Yours always,_

_Elisabeth_

A piece of blonde hair, thin and bleached a color that one might call radioactive slapped him in the face, bringing him back from the year of 1917, from an era that wasn't as fast paced and rushing to get to the next day; back from a letter from a lovesick expectant mother and her writings that had been sitting on his desk for the better part of the day, wanting and begging to be touched; back to the lively and loud party in front of him. That thin piece of wig was placed on his head sometime this afternoon during the preparations for the party along with the bright red lipstick that was plastered on his lips to make them pop, according to Stephanie, brought him back to the real platinum blonde beside him who was disguised skillfully as Humphrey Bogart, complete with the cigarette dangling out of her mouth and a slick black wig to put the last touches on the costume. But it wasn't enough to keep him at the party. His mind kept wandering. Turning around at the bar to get Jim, dressed as the _Grease_ starlet Olivia Newton-John to refill his drink, Logan wondered what originally inspired this party. There was no point to it, except to fulfill Finn's fantasy of dressing in a dress and not getting arrested for it. Then the idea just blossomed and Colin followed, then it was him.

Eight o'clock had come and passed and he knew better than anyone else that asking the host, this year and every year before this dressed as Tony Curtis' alter ego Josephine in _Some Like it Hot_, when the party was going to end or at least let up a bit was a bad idea. There would be yelling and a temper tantrum to follow if he dared. Finn had a firm rule that all of his parties, themed or not, were not to end until he had kissed every red head of the female gender in the room. And since telling the real red heads from the fake ones and the ones that were wearing vibrant crimson on top of their heads was going to very hard for Finn, Logan planned on the party ending somewhere around four a.m. or until Finn passed out from too much alcohol consumption. In fact, right now at this minute, Finn was in heels, a black cocktail dress and bright blue eye shadow to match his eyes, he was across the room trying to get his hands around or at least on Lucille Ball. Logan silently wondered that if Finn ended up kissing Alex Williamson and if all of the classic Hollywood regime was talking about said lip lock, would they notice if he was gone?

Finn's annual cross-dressing party had been going on for years and who was he kidding? Of course someone would notice if Marilyn Monroe just disappeared from the crowd that was basically a reincarnation of _Some Like it Hot_. Finn was Josephine, Colin was Daphne and in fact, Stephanie, dressed as the mob boss Spats Columbo, with a fedora nearly falling off of her head and a cigar sticking out of her mouth was strolling up to his side and ordering the next round of drinks for the headliners of the cast. Spats, of course, ordered her signature Greyhound and Colin stuck with his usual tequila.

He wanted to leave, wanted to escape to his room and get lost in the words of a small town girl wanting her husband to come home; he wanted to find Rory her miracle. Turning back around and leaning up against the bar, still trying to ignore Trina's poor imitation of Bogart next to him, he looked over his dorm room that was filled with most of the LDB. The furniture had been moved into Lanny's corner of the universe while his remained untouched. The old Hollywood regime that was gathered in and around the main room consisted of the cast of _Some Like it Hot_, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and those were just to name a few. Even Harold Monroe, another member of the secret and distinguished club, had dressed up for the event. Usually the one to be a stick in the mud and arrive at themed parties with the opposite-kind of outfit on, he was actually in the know. Of course, he had dressed up as John F. Kennedy, but nonetheless, he was participating.

The music had been blaring and a dance competition had broken out in the middle of the floor. Logan watched Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire give Gene Kelly and Judy Garland a run for their money…and money was there. There was big pool going on as to who everyone thought would win. His money was on Fred and Ginger, of course. No one messed with the dancing champions of Hollywood and there was just no competition when compared to them. Of course, having Danielle Gordon, Yale's only ballroom dance champion as Fred Astaire was a good thing too.

He was bored and that kind of thing never happened, especially not at one of Finn's infamous parties that even campus security joined in on. It was Friday and Friday's were meant for dates with sultry long legs and parties that lasted until the wee hours of the night. It wasn't meant for hiding in your room, losing yourself in ancient letters that smelt of the ocean and trying to find out who the mysterious Elisabeth was. But yet, that's what he wanted to do.

He wanted to slip out of the dippy white dress that his female counterpart was famous for, wipe the red lipstick off of his lips, toss the radioactive blonde wig back into Stephanie's collection of disguises and dive straight into research mode to find out who Elisabeth really was. Logan was a sucker like Rory was; he wanted to know who Elisabeth was, what her secret entailed and when Wally would be coming home. Logan found himself actually yelling at the letters for Wally to come home sometimes. Somehow and someway, Rory's obsession with the letters and the modern day Sherlock Holmes mystery had gotten to him.

Slipping past the crowd whose gazes were fixated on the dance competition in the middle of the floor and into the safe haven of his room, Logan let the wig fall off of his head and placed it on his desk, next to the three random letters that were taken from Rory's stash. From these three letters, all Logan could tell about Elisabeth was that she was a woman in love with a man who was quite possibly dead at the moment she was writing the letters. But she still kept writing, kept telling him of the days in Stars Hollow and how much she missed him.

Taking a tissue from the box sitting atop his computer monitor, he started to wipe the bright red lipstick off of his lips as his computer let out that annoying beep. Logan turned towards the monitor again and quickly opened up the browser to start on his research. He found it incredibly ironic how Finn's party was boring to him, yet sitting behind a desk, learning things he already knew about the military and reading small town life circa World War I was what he wanted to be doing and he found interesting and a bit fun. And if that meant getting through Holly and Gina, Yale's own Mary-Kate and Ashley, who both had their eyes on ending up in his bed tonight, then that's what he would do. After all, no one stood in the way of what Logan Huntzberger wanted and he wanted that miracle as bad as Rory.

In the past four days, while working with her on the letters and the article, he had placed an anonymous post on a genealogy board. He and she both figured that the post would go unnoticed with no responses whatsoever and they would end up at another dead end, but it didn't hurt to try. A military man named Wally and a tiny, discolored postmark were the only things they had to go on and that's what went in the message. It was short and quick and Logan honestly didn't expect to get any responses at all.

Logging onto the genealogy site and searching for his post that had landed itself on the second page and very close to being knocked over to the third, Logan was surprised to find that his post had gotten 13,458 clicks and even better a surprise were the five responses. Each and every reply told him to head on over to another genealogy site, one that specialized in every military branch. This was definitely something that was more interesting than Finn drinking himself into a coma.

Hopping on over to the genealogy search engine, he hoped this would get him somewhere other than a dead end, which they had been at for a while now. Immediately book marking the site, he typed in the facts that he knew just from the three letters next to him and he patiently waited while the database searched for any potential matches. Logan could already see in his mind that nothing would show up. He'd been hanging around with Rory too much, that was for certain – as much as he liked her optimistic outlook on life, she also had a pessimistic one as well. She kept saying throughout the week that they weren't getting anywhere and that was true, they weren't, but there was still hope and with the month deadline that was approaching very fast – well maybe she wasn't that far off when she said there was no hope. But that all changed in his mind as soon as he looked back to the screen to see if anything had popped up in the database. And there was.

Seven possible matches, the top of the page said. This only caused Logan's wide grin to get wider and he could see an "I-told-you-so" on the horizon. Clicking on the first one, Logan immediately vetoed that one from the list of possible Wally's that the search engine showed him. Numbers two, four and seven were that way as well. Randomly clicking on the fourth choice, Logan was pleasantly surprised when he saw the thing he was looking for. Connecticut was what convinced him to keep looking throughout the document and of course, much of the original documents that had been scanned for the database, had sections blacked out, missing information and a confidential section that even Logan's fake security and government logins couldn't access. The blacked out sections even included Wally's last name and his regiment number. But that wasn't a problem, at least not yet.

Logan wasn't looking for the members of his crew or even his rank that weren't blacked out on the document. In fact, those were listed. Each member under the command of Lieutenant Commander Wally whatever his last name may be, were listed and so was everything else about the boat. He was just looking for a last name: Elisabeth's last name to be specific. The "I-told-you-so" just hit it's horizon as his smile grew wider than before and Logan reached for his cell, immediately dialing Rory's cell number. He found their miracle.

* * *

"I'm just saying, what's the point of whipped cream if you don't get it on a milkshake?" Lorelai proposed the question at the bitter end of dinner, just as the maid had come out of the kitchen to take away their picked-over and hardly eaten plates. Emily stared at her daughter, wondering for all the world if she had been switched at birth for her real daughter as suspected. It could've happened too – the hospital that day had been a far cry from what Emily considered clean the nurses were not above the orderlies.

Emily had been questioning Lorelai's sanity ever since the girl had turned thirteen and tonight, along with the whipped cream question, had reaffirmed Emily's concerns that she was definitely insane. The conversation that she assumed would spring up from the silly question would top the one about anvils that she remembered well.

"There's pie," Rory reminded her mother as she leaned forward into the edge of the table and brought her elbow up to rest.

"Yes, of course! There's pie!" Lorelai said excitedly. "How could I forget about the pie?"

"How could you forget about the pie?" Rory repeated her question and repositioned herself in her seat as the maid started to bring the dessert plates out for them. "Pie is only the third most important thing in life."

"And what are the first two?" Emily asked, well aware of what she was talking herself into.

Rory looked towards her mother for any sign of '_don't do it_' but there was none, just an eager face for the mystery dessert that Emily had kept a secret since they started pestering her the moment they sat down for the appetizer. "Family and _Willy Wonka_," Rory decided for the both of them and enlightened her grandmother.

"_Willy Wonka_? Why on earth is _Willy Wonka_ on the list?"

"Because mom, it's _Willy Wonka_. It needs no explanation."

"Of course it doesn't," Emily rolled her eyes indirectly at Lorelai and her obsession with the movie that had only become popular within the last ten years. She would never understand the movie even if she watched it 52,367 times like her daughter claimed she had.

Feeling the need to move their dinner conversations along, Rory brought up the whipped cream question again. She knew this would cause more eye rolls from her grandmother but at least it was something to talk about and much more interesting than a recap of one of Emily's DAR meetings that she loved to inform them of.

"Did Luke forget about the whipped cream on a milkshake?" She asked prompting a big smile on her mother's face to emerge.

"No, he remembers. After 8 years with us as customers, he remembers. My very good accomplice Cesar, on the other hand, doesn't."

"Cesar? Who's Cesar? And why is he named after a conqueror?"

"Cesar is Luke's employee. He closes, cooks and cleans. And we don't know," Rory answered her grandmother's question in three short answers.

"Yes, Cesar, who helped me with Luke's birthday gift, doesn't like whipped cream. So, he takes it upon himself to and I quote, 'save all of us from complete agony and food poisoning' and then proceeds to drown the milkshake with a bucket of cherries. Which brings up another question, why is it always cherries? Why can't it be a banana slice or a strawberry or even better, chocolate? That would be the perfect milkshake right there," Lorelai put a hand to her chest and fantasized about the delectable dessert. "Chocolate with whipped cream with more chocolate on top."

Rory couldn't help but smile at her mother. She loved how in spite of what Emily thought of their silly conversations, she kept on with them. She could truly say that there was not one boring dinner she had attended at her grandparents' house. Pulling her arms over her chest, Rory leaned back in her chair and listened as her mother went on with the milkshake phenomenon and watched as her grandmother, although she wouldn't admit it, was quite interested.

"But you don't like banana milkshakes," Rory pointed out as her purse got her attention from the floor below her, moving ever so slightly back towards the parlor room. Trying to ignore it, Rory pulled her gaze back up to the table and watched her mother's mouth move more, talking of her favorite milkshake flavors, which excluded banana and included mango kiwi. And she would only drink the mango kiwi that Luke made. Whether there was some sexual joke behind the milkshake, Rory didn't want to know.

Her purse tipped over and caught Rory's eye again. She wanted to pick it up and answer it but knowing the way her grandmother would react, like the last time was not something she wanted to experience again. The last time, Dean was the one who called her and that's when Emily the earthquake happened. Hesitating was definitely good, maybe she could strike up another conversation and call whoever was calling her now afterwards. Or they actually could wait until she was done with dinner; that would've been ideal.

"Are you going to answer that?" Lorelai's voice shook Rory from the pro and con list that she was writing down in her head about answering the slim silver phone that was buzzing with glee.

"Answer what?"

"It could be an emergency," she reasoned.

"I don't think it's an emergency," Rory paused and looked down at the ground, her purse still inching towards the parlor room with every intent on getting there before the dessert arrived. "I'm not going to answer it," she said triumphantly as she grabbed her purse and put it on the table, letting it vibrate towards her mother instead.

"Rory, answer the phone. It's annoying," Emily told her granddaughter.

"Wait, you want her to answer the phone? You, who doesn't even like to answer your own phone, wants her to answer hers?" Lorelai started to mock Emily's wishes and was enjoying every minute of it. Rory thought that sometimes this was what Lorelai was born for. Mocking her parents and everything they represented was fun for her mother and yet, tonight, Emily didn't seem to mind. Something was off with her grandmother. Rory hoped that this was a reflection of her missing Richard, that the separation, by pool only, was getting to her.

"Yes, I want her to answer the phone, Lorelai. Plus, as you stated before, it could be an emergency," Emily retorted in a condescending tone that only brought a shocked face to Lorelai and a smile to her lips. Emily was learning to play her daughter's game and was succeeding at it. "Answer the phone Rory, but make it quick. I don't want you to miss dessert."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"I mean really sure, I mean if I answer this and exceed the ten minute time frame that you gave us a lecture on two weeks ago…."

"Oh for heaven sakes," Lorelai exclaimed, grabbing Rory's purse off the table and answering the vibrating phone for her. Flipping it open, her mother dove right in to the kinky greeting. "Rory's house of shackles, specializing in whips, chains and fuzzy handcuffs. This is Lorelai speaking, how can I help you?"

"Mom!" Rory exclaimed, grabbing the phone away from her face and answering it in her way, the way where you said hello and waited for whoever was on the other end of the line to say hello too. "Hello?"

"Elisabeth, is there something you're not telling me?" Logan's voice resonated in her ear and Rory didn't know why, but it brought a smile to her face. It was a break from the Lorelai-Emily bickering fest that she predicted coming soon in their dinner hours.

"Dear Wally," she bid him, taking the napkin off of her lap and onto the table and slipping out into the parlor room to see why he had to call her in the middle of her Friday Night Dinner. Even though she welcomed and was glad for the interruption on the milkshake and whipped cream debate, it was still Friday Night Dinner and it was inevitable that she would see him tomorrow when he "accidentally" ran into her with a very large cup of coffee to her liking.

"Dearest Elisabeth," he countered back as she sat down on the light sofa and took off one of her shoes. She had to wear heels, didn't she? Rory scolded herself silently as Logan told her of a surprise that he had for her.

As Rory listened to "Wally's" peculiar riddles and undertones, Emily was busy hassling her daughter into telling her who exactly this "Wally" was. Emily had taken note that it was in fact a member of the opposite sex on the other line and wanted to know everything and anything regarding this "Wally". That meant history, family history to be exact along with any old romantic entanglements he might have been involved in.

The last time she had heard, her granddaughter had just ended things permanently with Dean Forrester, a young man who along she got along with yet didn't think he was suitable enough for her granddaughter. And although she wouldn't dare admit it, agreed with Luke on Rory. She should be dating someone her equal, someone who would challenge her in all the right ways, someone who looked at her the way that Richard used to look at her. And Dean, well, he wasn't that someone.

"Who is he Lorelai?"

"I don't know Mom," Lorelai said as the maid brought the three desserts to the table. Looking at the fried ice cream dessert that Emily knew Rory and herself liked very much, she knew exactly the way to divert the conversation from Rory back to the whipped cream question she had before. "Now this is an occasion for whipped cream."

"Oh, enough of the whipped cream and milkshakes, Lorelai. Who is Wally?"

"Mom, if I knew, don't you think I'd tell you?"

"I know for a fact that you wouldn't."

"Then why are you asking me now?"

"Because you're her mother, she tells you everything."

"She doesn't tell me everything, Mom," Lorelai tried to reason as the maid brought the whipped cream can out like she had requested. Shaking up the can, Lorelai made the fried ball of ice cream disappear with the cloud of whipped cream that overflowed the tiny dessert cup that it was in. "Yes, definitely in need of whipped cream. Mom?" Lorelai offered the whipped cream to her un-enthused and otherwise preoccupied mother who was staring back out into the parlor room, wondering what was taking her granddaughter this long and who she was talking to. "Mom?"

"What Lorelai?" Emily answered, but didn't turn her head from the parlor room's direction.

"Well, I was just saying that Dad's home and if you want, I can go and ask him what's up with the flamboyant Liberace inspired vest that we found last week when he was gone. I mean, I would even want to know the answer to that and to find out if my father actually went and joined the circus. Could you imagine if he did and we got like free tickets, elephant ears and knew Johnny the Human Torch for the rest of our lives?" Lorelai tried to get her mother's attention with the outrageous and completely unbelievable conversation that she randomly pulled out of Harry a moment ago. But it didn't. Emily's gaze only came back to the table when Rory started to walk back.

"Okay, I'll just meet you then. Bye Wally," Rory bid "Wally" goodbye and closed her phone, slipping it back in her purse and noticing the fried ice cream in front of her. "Oooo, fried ice cream. Where's the whipped cream?"

"Who's Wally?" Emily spat out, not giving Lorelai a chance to counteract on the whipped cream question and just handed over the can for Rory to indulge in the pleasures of whipped cream and fried ice cream deliciousness.

"Yes, Rory, who is Wally?" Lorelai raised her eyebrows. Knowing of the letters and stories that she had since uncovered, which would be very few, Lorelai was also interested in who exactly she was calling Wally.

"Wally is just a friend who's helping me on an article at the Yale Daily News, that's it," Rory offered the simple explanation and dipped her spoon into the delectable dessert that was begging her to eat it.

"Just a friend?"

"Yes, Grandma, just a friend," Rory told the Gilmore girls sitting in front of her. And that's what he was, just a friend.

* * *

Why couldn't her grandmother ever take a simple answer for anything? Why was it so hard to believe that she was working with a boy and he went to Yale and he was just a friend? Emily had met Marty, and he was just a friend. He would always be just a friend. But Marty never called her during Friday Night Dinner and that was all because he knew better than "Wally" did at the moment.

Rory had known Logan for six or seven months now and although she had pounded it through his head time and time again during the past week that she would be at Friday Night Dinner at eight and wouldn't be out until at least ten, he had still called and as it says to rate guys in the Gilmore girl handbook, deducted at least fifty points from his scorecard. The guy rating system wasn't reserved just for potential boyfriend guys, it was for all of them. Skip, the mailman with the _Reno 911_ shorts to Carlos, the new stock boy that Taylor just hired a week ago had one. Carlos, was by far, in the number one spot, followed by Luke and that was all because of Luke's liking to feed Lorelai healthy food.

Rounding the south corner and heading towards Logan's dorm room, she started to notice the costumes people were wearing and found it both funny and weird that Vincent Woodward was dressed as Audrey Hepburn, although the dress that he picked out to portray her was busting at the seems. It made her think of Stars Hollow and all their quirky traditions that Taylor had to uphold, this was exactly something that they would do. Pushing her gloved hands into her pockets, Rory bundled herself in her coat and tried to stop the cool wind from entering the thick material. Stopping short of his dorm room door, Rory observed all the other costumes and knew exactly what she was walking into.

She had heard of the infamous cross-dressing party that was by invitation only but had never seen it until now. Even last year, when Finn and Colin were still attending Yale and Logan was not, she had not witnessed it. Immediately recognizing James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor, in the day known as Alicia Townsend and Steven Adams, she knew this was the place to be. Not knowing whether to knock and play it safe or just let herself in like everyone else was doing in front of her, she went along with the latter. Pushing past campus security who were equally as smashed as everyone else in the room, she started to unbutton her coat, feeling the warmth of the crowd and looked around for Logan.

Now realizing that he would be dressed as a member of the opposite sex from the old Hollywood regime, Rory knew she was looking for a needle in the haystack. Finding Logan in a dress was no doubt going to be hard and funny when she found him. She imagined finding him in a short skirt and a barely there shirt, something that maybe one of his many girlfriends had picked out. But then again, she should just look for the guy dressed as a girl who was surrounded by a bunch of girls dressed as guys. That would be much easier. Going to her left and looking and then to her right and looking some more, she knew she was lost. Just where would you find the Errol Flynn of Yale in an over-crowded dorm room? Room…Rory thought of the word for the enormous space she was in. Correction, this wasn't a dorm room, this was half of the south wing merged into one and for whom? Only the heir to a newspaper empire whose family had donated half of the south wing in the first place and his one lone friend, Lanny who she was sure was around here somewhere, sipping on a whiskey and talking of how comfortable tights actually were. Looking around one more time, Rory started to take her cell phone out to call them famous Errol Flynn of Yale when she saw two cross-dressers and pretty cross-dressers at that walk towards her.

"Invitation please," the one with the flaming red wig atop his head said, his hand sticking out in her direction.

"Daphne, she doesn't need an invitation. All she needs is a suit and a cigarette sticking out of her mouth," the taller, dark headed one corrected his friend.

Rory started to roll her eyes as the _Some Like it Hot_ duo, who she only recognized when _Daphne_ addressed _Josephine_, started to argue about her attire. "Look, I hate to break this female bonding moment up, but all I'm looking for is Logan. I'm sure you know him since this is his dorm and…" Rory was caught off guard as a hand brushed the small of her back and she turned to see who it was.

"Thanks for finding my Arthur Miller guys, you can go," Logan told his two best friends and took Finn's place in front of her. Looking her up and down like he was sizing her up to be his next victim, err, date, a cocky smile appeared on his face. "You didn't have to dress up just for me," he told her as she did the same to him.

Looking him up and down one last time before letting the gigantic laugh out in the middle of the room, she added on, "Don't flatter yourself and neither did you." She should've guessed that he would be dressed as Marilyn Monroe, the pretty girl with more smarts than everyone put together in the room had, the one who got what she wanted and all she had to do was smile at them in a certain way. It was a great parallel and Rory silently congratulated the girlfriend who dressed Logan up for tonight's party; they had placed him perfectly.

The dippy white dress hugged his upper body, showing off those abs that made the girls fawn over him; red heels were placed on his feet and Rory wondered if he had thrown them up against a wall yet or not, like she had wanted to do all the while she was on the phone with him at dinner with hers. Compared to the other guys at the party, with their Hollywood counterparts' famous dresses and hair, Rory suddenly felt underdressed and out of place. Nothing out of the normal in this type of atmosphere but still, this was different. She couldn't put her finger on it, but this was different.

Daphne and Josephine were pulled away by Donald O'Connor, one of her favorites and Dean Martin, back out into the center of the proclaimed dance floor as Logan, err, Marilyn as she would remind herself to call him from now on, pulled her back in the direction of where he came from. Shutting the door behind them as they entered, presumably, his room, Rory looked around the four walled space and watched as Logan pulled up another chair next to his computer and clicked on the computer to boot it back up from its sleeping mode that it was in.

"So, Sugar Kane, why aren't you out there with the rest of your cast?"

"You know the movie?" he questioned, raising a lone eyebrow at her as he roamed over his desktop for the link.

"I'm a Gilmore Girl, I know every movie in the history of movies. Never question that."

"Noted," he said, never turning his gaze from the computer. Leaning in behind him, she was curious as to why he called her in the first place. "So," he began, "remember how earlier this week you said that you thought it was pointless to make a post on a genealogy board that would get us nowhere and no responses in return?"

"Yes, and you agreed, don't pin this all on me."

"I'm not and I'm also not finished. Remember when you said in a very frustrated tone that you needed a miracle?"

"Yes."

"How about when you…"

"Wally!"

"Simmer down Elisabeth, simmer down."

"Just tell me what you found so that I can figure out what to tell Doyle on Monday morning how this article isn't going anywhere and…"

Logan covered her mouth with his hand, only to stop her from talking any further and to give her her surprise. Pulling her closer to the computer, he scrolled down the browser and moved the mouse arrow to right where she needed to read. Her miracle was there. Right there in front of her nose and she couldn't believe it. Letting herself sink in the chair in front of the computer, she scrolled up, just making sure that the site was legit and nothing or no one was pulling their legs on the information. With all the blacked out information on the document and the credentials that she pulled up on the browser's main site, a smile slipped on her face. Her miracle; their miracle was right in front of her face and she couldn't believe it.

"Easton. Elisabeth Easton," Logan whispered next to her, hoping and actually waiting for Rory to jump for joy over their discovery. He saw the smile on her face and that, right now, was enough for him. That article deadline that Doyle had set for them was fast approaching and Logan had a feeling that this would give them a head start on actually writing the article, instead of just researching.

Reaching behind him and grabbing the shirt he had been wearing earlier in the day, he rid of the dress and quickly changed into the shirt. Rory tried to keep her gaze on the computer screen but found her eyes wandering the bare of his chest before he covered it and got up from the chair to slip into his khaki's that were on the other side of the bed. Reminding herself that she wasn't interested in Logan as a romantic prospect, he thoughts immediately returned to Elisabeth and her last name: Easton.

"Logan?"

"Hmmm?" he said behind her, returning to the seat next to her. She didn't know what prompted her to do it, all she knew was that she was in his arms a moment later and smiling about it.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," he said softly into her curls that rounded around her covered shoulders. He was just as surprised as she was that she was in his arms. Something that he wasn't at all unfamiliar with, having a girl in his arms, but this time was different. Usually he would scoot out of the embrace just as fast as it had happened, but Logan found himself actually wanting to hang on to this one, to prolong the feeling of her hands floating across his back just a bit longer than it probably should've been. When she pulled back a bit, he fought the urge to pull her back in. She was different, he reminded himself. She was one of the ones who weren't interested in him because of his name or his money. She was just a friend…a very good friend that challenged him just as often as he did her. He didn't want to chance that friendship…at least not yet.

Her hands drifted down his arms and he found himself wanting to hold her hand in his, just to see what it was like, to see how it felt when she suddenly thought of something else…something pertaining to Elisabeth.

"Wait a minute, Easton?"

"Easton," he echoed, reaffirming her question of the night.

"I know that name," she said aloud, reaching for her coat that was hiding her tiny purse beneath it. Flipping out her cell phone, she quickly pushed a number on her speed dial and waited for the party on the other line to answer. Scrolling up and down the site just to look over the facts, he leaned in and watched her work. "Can I?" she looked back at him as she hovered over the print button.

"Sure, go ahead," he said as she printed off a copy of the secure Naval document. Still watching and trying to eavesdrop on the conversation that she would be having with the person she started to call, Logan, nonchalantly took a whiff of her scent and liked what he smelt. A mixture of cinnamon and fresh rain, he could definitely get used to that smell.

"Vicki's house of thieves. We got Aladdin, Abu, Jafar and even that funny talking parrot whose name I forget every time and let's not forget those Arabian Knights. Jasmine speaking."

Logan overheard the odd and imaginative greeting and smiled to himself. This definitely had to be her mother. During their week spent together, Rory had brought him up to date on all the things her and her mother had done, including the handbook and weird traditions they had made for themselves. This had included all the previous telephone greetings that they had used in the past month. Yep, definitely couldn't wait to meet the other Lorelai Gilmore.

"Jasmine, I need pie."

"How much pie?"

"A lot of pie. Does he have a full one there, untouched?"

"He has…blueberry, apple, cherry and a huge chocolate one that has my name all over it."

"I'll be there in thirty."

"See ya then kid."

"Bye Jasmine," Rory flipped her phone close, grabbing the sheet off of his printer, her coat and purse off of his bed and started to head out the door when she stopped suddenly. Turning back around on her heel, Rory looked at Logan who was staring right back at her. "Are you coming?"

"What?"

"Coming, you know, with me?"

"Where and why?"

"Stars Hollow and for more information about Elisabeth. But, if you do you have to change back in that dress. My mom knows all the jokes for that and would love to see how that dress looks on a real live guy instead of her plastic blow up doll that she likes to get out of her closet every know and then."

"And after that, I'm saying no."

"Come on, best coffee in the world. Trust me on that one."

"Better than Café Florian?"

"Correction, best coffee on the east coast, hands down. Plus, you're as much a part of this article as I am. I wouldn't even be going back home tonight to interrogate my mom's boyfriend if it wasn't for you," Rory reasoned, hoping he would say yes. It was true; she wouldn't be anywhere near this point without him and was thankful.

Logan weighed the options in his head. At first thought, he would say no, drag himself back out into the party and watch the girls dressed as guys throw themselves at him but he would still be bored. And at second thought, he was saying yes, all because he wanted to meet the infamous Lorelai Gilmore that he was now familiar with and was going to predict that he could and would get along with her.

"Hmmm, I don't know Ace, I mean, party," he pointed out towards the door and stepped closer to her, "or small town life with probably nothing better to do than set my car alarm off just to wake everyone up?" His hands floated in the air, like he was weighing the events on a scale and Rory squinted her eyes just to let him know that she wasn't amused by his joking of her small town. Letting a strong sigh out of his body, he only had one question for her as he grabbed his coat off of the hanger that was dangling from his closet. "Your car or mine?"

"Definitely yours. My mother's face when we show up in a loaded Porsche? All I have to say is thank God for camera phones."


	6. The Saturday Evening Post

**Chapter Six****  
****The Saturday Evening Post**

_Dear Wally,__  
__I was sad today. I cried before, during and after and most of the tears weren't for James, as I know he's in a better place than here right now. They were because of them. I was there, by an oak tree near the back, crying as the minister delivered a prayer that spoke of my eldest brother James like he was a hometown hero. And he was…at least for me he was. Anna found me shortly afterwards, thanking me for coming and telling me to keep in touch with her. I don't know what I would've done if it had been you. I am so scared for her, Wally, so scared. I need to correct myself and tell you again that I cried. For James, For Anna. And I cried because of them. They will never know that they're going to be grandparents. I left quietly and walked back to where Rand had his new car waiting for me and cried a bit more. As much as I'm going to miss James and all of his ways and his smile and the man that he would've become, the father he might have been, I'm thankful that it wasn't you. And as much as I probably hurt them and they hurt me, I don't regret marrying you. You are possibly the best thing that's ever happened to me. Hurry back, my love. I need to see you, to touch your face and to know you're alive and well. I love you.__  
__Yours Always,__  
__Elisabeth_

The drive to Stars Hollow, the infamous small town that he felt like he already knew from Rory's stories and Elisabeth's letters, was amazingly quiet and short. He had felt like it would take them longer to get there given Rory's aggravated status every time he had seen her come back to Yale from a weekend at home. Considering the fact that it was almost midnight, traffic on the expressway was extremely scarce and that her annoyed tone had something to do with the actual town than with traffic, which probably had something to do with it. Rory pointed the direction to turn as they arrived on Main Street and already figuring to park next to the only business with their lights still on, Logan pulled up behind the old model Jeep and shut his engine off.

Looking into the diner through the blinds, he could see two figures conversing as Rory shimmied around in the passenger seat and got his attention back with the wave of her hand. Her lips started to move but the sound wasn't registering in his mind as his eyes drifted up and down the sidewalk, wondering what it would've been like back in 1917. Would the diner still be there or the bookstore that caught his eye? Logan had no doubt that Rory had a bookshelf named after her in the shop. He could see her spending all day cooped up in a corner and losing herself in the adventures of Hugo or Dumas. He could even see himself doing that, if he had spent his years growing up in a town like this. A town where, he had a strange feeling, everyone knew everyone; their secrets, their life story, even their middle names.

"Yo, Huntzberger, you listening?" Rory snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention back from the past and into the present.

"Yeah, sorry, is that the place?" Logan pointed to the diner just to make sure.

"Yea, that's the place. Look, I know it's midnight and you really don't want to go to history class but since this is Luke and there is history involved, I'm going to give you a short recap," Rory informed him, slipping out of the seatbelt she had over her shoulder still and facing him again. "Luke grew up here, moved away, then moved back when his dad got sick. The diner used to be a hardware store, hence the Williams Hardware sign in front of the diner. Luke didn't like it, well, he liked it, but didn't want to run a hardware store, so he changed it to a diner and the best coffee in the world was born. My mom and Luke have known each other since then. He's more a father to me than my real father is. He took care of me when I had chicken pox for two weeks and my mom was swamped at the Independence Inn, which burnt down a couple of years ago, he helped me move into Yale, he showed up at my high school graduation. Luke, after years of pinning for my mother and secretly wishing that she could be his, finally put his heart on the line and asked her out. She said yes, end of that story."

"That's short?"

"Shorter than the version my mother would tell you. But one more thing before we go in," Rory said as they both slipped out of the tiny import and walked up towards the entrance.

"Yea, Ace."

"Luke acts like my dad because he was practically my dad."

"You just mentioned that, Ace."

"I know, so if he goes all stiff and doesn't acknowledge you that's because he still thinks I'm ten and a princess and that no guy, however cute and charming and rich he may be, isn't good enough for me, it's because he's my father figure."

"You think I'm cute and charming?" A smug appeared on his upper lip and turned into a triumphant smile very fast.

"You're pushing it Huntzberger."

"Ace, I got it. Can we go in now? I'm getting a little cold," he told her, feeling a shiver crawl up his spine as the cool wind continued to get cooler. He saw a shiver run up her spine as well as she shook her shoulder to get rid of it. He smirked as she rolled her eyes at him, probably contemplating why on earth she brought him in the first place, and followed her as she ascended the concrete steps up to her favorite eatery in the entire world.

A chime on the door beckoned his attention even before he saw her mother seated at a table in the center of the diner. It was a kind of stereotypical Americana – the kind that you only find in feel-good novellas about finding your true love around the corner or down the street from you or the kind that you seen drawn on the cover of an early edition of the Saturday Evening Post. It was the kind of Americana that Elisabeth wrote of: her favorite bakery being a place that was once called Trevor's that, by her letters, used to sit right next to the local library back in 1917. Now, the local library was a bar and Trevor's turned into the kitchen part of the bar. The new library, as Rory pointed out during their tour of the town, was right next to the smallish looking high school that Logan had always wished he had gone to instead of Andover Academy.

The soft touch of Rory's hand on his sent his thoughts from the Americana comparisons to the table that was filled with every kind of pie that he could possibly imagine on it. But in a Gilmore's world, probably not every kind of pie was there. His eyes were pulled from the abundance of pie to the abundance of whipped cream and coffee being brought to the table by a man with more than enough experience with the Gilmore's to know what to bring and how much of it to stock in the back.

This was probably Luke, Logan assumed correctly as the guy with a backwards baseball cap on sent a grunt and nod his way and continued on his mission to get the girls all they wanted before sitting down for probably the first time all day since he opened at six a.m. like Rory had told him before during the drive there. Three cans of whipped cream along with two gigantic mugs of coffee were set in front of the girls. As Rory sat down across from the woman she was calling Jasmine at the moment, he presumed that this was her mother, the infamous Lorelai Gilmore who he had heard numerous stories about from both Hartford Society and Rory. Of course, he enjoyed Rory's more; they sparked with that first-hand experience, with life. If he was sure of anything at this moment in time, it was that he knew Rory would make a great journalist; there were things that set her apart from the greats. Her stories were full of life, spark, experience and just a bit of fantasy; something that readers love to read about.

Slipping off his jacket and finally pulling out a chair to sit down in, he gently smiled at the dark haired beauty, noticing her brilliant blue eyes that Rory had inherited. They were electrifying. No wonder that this Luke, who was coming back to the table with a beer for him and asking Logan what he wanted to drink for the second time in a row, would do anything for these girls. If it wasn't their eyes that got you and twisted you up inside, making you want to do anything for them, it was their way with words. Logan had echoed the coffee plea and turned back to the Gilmore girls to his right, trying to decipher the mass of underlying tones in their conversation about fried ice cream and romantic entanglements.

"Okay, so about this winning the lottery thing, tell me about it," the elder Lorelai asked her daughter, shaking up one of the whipped cream cans as Luke joined them at the table with another mug of coffee; the mug significantly smaller than the girls'.

"Winning the lottery? Since when do I gamble?" Rory asked back.

"Since apparently tonight when you leave with your hybrid from Hartford and two hours later you're driving a Porsche with one of America's hunkiest bachelors and he is hunky. I'm just so glad that you're giving me the Porsche. My Jeep is getting a bit rusty anyway."

Logan smiled at the notion, nearly spitting up his coffee back into the mug at the mention of her taking his Porsche. Logan could do without his family, the newspaper business, even the condo in Aspen that he loved to escape to every so often, but the Porsche? He couldn't do without that. He loved his car, it was a guy thing he guessed.

"I didn't win the lottery Mom. The Porsche is Logan's and no, you cannot keep him or the car," Rory advised her mother, taking another can of whipped cream and shaking it like her mother did the other one. Spraying half the can over the entire chocolate pie that was definitely going to be inhaled by the both of them, Logan considered himself very lucky to even be here to witness the event.

Rory had talked of eating a whole pie by herself and Logan was witness to the Frosted Flake crisis of 8 a.m. yesterday when Rory practically threw Yale's biggest hissy fit since Finn and his love for apple tarts, but he never thought he would be lucky enough to see it for himself.

Taking another drink of his coffee and as the girls' talked of whipped cream and winning the lottery more, Logan looked around the diner, imagining it as a hardware store as Rory said it used to be and wondering if it was a hardware store in 1917 as well. But his thoughts were cut short as Lorelai Gilmore's shrieking voice put a halt to it all.

"Here we go," Rory mumbled under her breath and turned to Logan. "I'm sorry."

"You're the rich one!" Lorelai exclaimed with an "a-ha" type moment. "The one that stole my daughter away and made her jump off a seven-story scaffold thing," she paused again so she could soak in the taken aback facial expression permanently plastered on Logan's face and then added, "In a dress!"

After the initial shock of Rory's mother yelling at him, Logan took a deep breath and answered her confidently. "Yes," he said, remembering the fateful day when Rory dared to jump with him, "although, I didn't force her to do it, she wanted too. Right Ace?"

"Right and it was a very pretty dress," Rory echoed Logan's statement and added on to it so they could move the conversation from the LDB event to Elisabeth and what they were really there for. Although, he would have to talk to her about how her mother actually knew about the LDB event.

"Well, at least it was a pretty dress. What color was it again?" Lorelai asked, another bite of strawberry pie in her mouth and a sip of coffee to follow.

"Blue."

"Just blue?"

"No, not just blue. It was a blue that made you think of Babette's blueberry pie on the 4th of July with the fresh blueberries on top. But it wasn't that deep, actually."

"That is a good blue," Lorelai said, her mouth now watering from the imagery, "especially when compared to pie."

Luke and Logan looked between each other, not sure whether to take their conversation about the color blue seriously or not.

"There's a difference in blues?" Luke finally spoke up, wanting to get insight into the politics of blue according to the Gilmore Girls.

"Of course there's a difference in blues, Luke," Lorelai said to him. "Like, the blue that Logan has on is a deep blue while the blue that Rory has on is more of a Superman blue," Lorelai let him in on the secret of blues and whipped her gaze back to the two in front of her. "Hey, you match."

"Superman blue?" Luke, again, asked.

"Mom, I don't need him any more confused, so let's drop the blue convo and talk about why I wanted pie, coffee and Luke still awake at this time of night which I am totally grateful for. Thank you Luke."

"That sounds good to me," Logan echoed, waiting for Luke's stare on him to dwindle down and turn to Rory.

"Right so here's what we have," Rory paused to drag out the piece of paper she had printed out over at Logan's and set it in front of Luke to read over. He had to know something, Rory was sure of it. He had grown up in this small town and knew everything about everything…well, mostly. He still didn't know the whole story about Kirk, but then again, who did and who would want to. And although he wasn't a Miss Patty or Babette just yet, he knew what was what.

They all watched as Luke intently skimmed over the paper and read it aloud to himself one more time. She prayed that something would come out of his mouth that will help them. In all the years of attending Stars Hallow schools, she remembered the name being mentioned more than once, but for the life of her couldn't recall why it was brought up or when. Rory found it funny how she could remember the first act of Macbeth by heart and forget something that she had probably learned in the first grade from Mrs. Thurman.

"Come on Luke, anything?" Impatient should have been her middle name for as fast as she was taping her nails against the table, waiting on her possible future step-father to tell them something. Anything would be good right about now. Even if it was a tall tale about Elisabeth being Paul Bunyan's long lost sister would do, she just wanted to hear something and Rory was betting that Logan wanted to hear something too. A story along the lines about Elisabeth being a townie who led a quiet life up until the letters ended was a story she was looking for, but right now, she would take anything.

"How many times have you read that?" Lorelai asked, breaking Luke's concentration and eating on another slice of pie with double the whipped cream that she had had on her fried ice cream at dinner with Emily.

"Six."

"And nothing? Not even a manly Luke grunt or an 'aha' moment like I just had when I realized that the hunky Yale Male that Rory won in the lottery was one in the same with Logan Huntzberger, the one who…"

"Lorelai," Luke sent a small glare and scowl her way.

"Was that a glare? Rory, I got my first official boyfriend Luke glare," Lorelai clutched her daughter's hand across the table and squeed like a fan girl over the moment.

"I am so proud," Rory fulfilled her mother's wanting of any kind of response and turned back to Luke just as quick, inching her chair closer to Logan's then she noticed. "Are you sure there isn't anything there Luke? I mean other than a bunch of jibberish about Wally's crew and military jargon?"

"You just said jargon," Lorelai giggled into the multiple personality conversation.

"I know," Rory replied back with a stellar smile on her lips.

"So professional."

Rory looked back to Luke the instant she saw the paper slip from his hands. Luke leaned back in his chair and let out a deep breath. That was a sign that she didn't want to get. It was a sign that he was tired and although willing to help her out, didn't know anything. "Elisabeth is a very popular name, Rory," he breathed out, drinking on his beer as she mimicked him with her coffee.

"I know, but shouldn't there be something…something to tell us who she was before she married Wally," she reasoned.

"What year were the letters from?"

"Mostly 1917," Logan answered for her. "There are some from the 1950s though."

Luke slowly raised his gaze back up to the girl who had relied on him for everything since she turned ten and gave her what she suspected he would give her: nothing. He didn't know of any other Elisabeth except for his aunt. Of course there was Elizabeth Staiton and Elizabeth Johnson, but those were two of the girls in Miss Patty's dance class who loved to come in the diner and show his customers what they had learned that day every chance they got. But they were both eleven and he seriously doubted that they got married to a seaman in 1917 and wrote these letters. "I'm sorry, Ror, but I don't know anything," Luke took a deep breath and continued, "Maybe if we knew Wally's last name it would help."

"Luke, you're supposed to know something."

"I don't know everything, Rory."

"Yes you do. You're Luke!"

"Like I said, it would help if we knew Wally's last name."

"That's a problem," Rory pointed out, pulling out a letter that Logan had stuck in his jacket pocket just in case and placing it in front of Luke for him to look at with the paper. "All the letters are addressed just like this."

Luke stared down at the letter. It was a simple envelope, smelling of the salty ocean and discolored in every spot. Luke's hope for Wally's last name was quickly squished as Elisabeth only addressed the letter to Lieutenant Commander W.K. Well, at least they got another letter, but it still didn't help him identify an Elisabeth who lived in Stars Hallow over forty years ago.

Staring at the expression of Luke's face, Rory let out an exasperated sigh. Defeated; at a dead end. That was literally how she felt after letting her head slip down to rest on the table.

"Look, it's late," Lorelai stated and started out, "Maybe you guys should just stay the night and see if anyone else around this one horse town knows anything in the morning." Noting the frustrated look on her daughter's face and the exhausted one on her boyfriends', Lorelai knew this was probably the best place. Plus, it was nearly one o'clock in the morning and although the expressway was probably free of all obstacles including other cars, Lorelai would feel better if they stayed here.

Frustration was an overrated word. Especially for the way that Logan and Rory were looking at this particular moment in time. They loved the letters and the mystery of the letters, but it was getting to the both of them. Lorelai knew this, after all, she was Lorelai.

"No, we should probably just get back to Yale," Rory started to object.

"But how can you pass up the chance to piss Michel and Taylor off…in the same day? Plus, you walking around with him, the stereotypical Yale Male that everyone and their sister will be fawning over, is just too good to pass up," Lorelai emphasized for her daughter to weight the options in her mind. "Babette and Miss Patty are going to have a hay day with gossip."

"Miss Patty?" Rory jumped at her name. "Is she here?"

"Don't know, but you could see for yourself in the morning…"

"Mean," Rory crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair, glaring back at Lorelai.

"Let me make it easy for you Ace," Logan adjusted himself in the diner chair next to Rory and draped his arm around the back of hers, "we'll stay."

"You want to stay?"

"It seems like a good idea. I mean, you were probably planning on coming back tomorrow and doing the reporter thing anyway, weren't you?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. And it's not like I'm wanting to rush back or anything just to see Finn passed out most likely in my room and in a dress," Logan admitted, flashing her a smirk that he had since reserved just for her.

"Then it's settled!" Lorelai exclaimed as Luke pushed his way through the mess that was on the table and started to clean it up. "You and Logan will go back to the house and me and Luke can stay and have some fun with the pie."

"Okay, that's our cue," Rory latched onto Logan's arm and pulled him up with her and took her jacket with her in one swift movement towards the door.

It was one thing when her mother started using big words – that, she could handle easily. Rory and big words were a good combination. But any sentence involving Luke and implied sex, that was a different story; One that she didn't want to have especially in front of Logan.

"Oh, you're no fun," Lorelai pulled out a pout on her daughter as Rory just rolled her eyes at the notion.

"Luke, thanks," Rory buttoned up her coat tight and headed over to the counter to where Luke was finally cleaning up the mess of the day.

"For what Rory?"

"For the coffee, pie, keeping my mom here while I go and try to redeem first impressions of her from Logan and for your help."

"Anytime kid," Luke slipped in a wink between his gruff smile and she smiled back, glad that he was there.

Turning back to see Logan waiting patiently at the door and her mother gearing up for another round of twenty questions, Rory knew she had to get out of the diner quickly; for Logan's own good and her own. Strolling up to his side and offering him a sympathetic smile just in case her mother started on the twenty questions that she knew by heart, she was about to say something when she cut her off again.

"Okay, so since you're going back to our house, I have to go over rules…"

"I know the rules Mom, I'll tell Logan on the way there, even Babette will remind him when we get there."

"I have to Rory, you know I have to," Lorelai reasoned as Logan shifted in his stance and reached for the knob on the door.

"I know you have to. What time is it?" she wondered aloud and all three of them looked at their watches simultaneously, wanting to answer her.

As Lorelai said the correct time, Rory found it easier to read off of Logan's outstretched hand. Almost one, Rory read off of his gold Rolex watch and smiled a thank you his way. Yes, it was late and this mystery of Elisabeth and Wally was definitely wearing on her. She needed sleep, needed an induced sugar coma while humming along to an underappreciated movie, and needed to do so in something other than her skirt that she had been in since seven o'clock yesterday.

Taking another deep breath, Rory pushed on Logan's shoulder to move him forward, definitely ready to go. Rory saw as Luke waved his hand from the counter and the diner chime sounded in her ears.

"Wait, my rules," Lorelai started to pout and Rory stayed back just so she could make her mother happy for a moment. "Okay, now since I'm your mother and I never have the opportunity to do this, I have to: rule number one, well, you know rule number one. Two, _Willy Wonka _shall be watched three times before you even think about putting _The Princess Bride_ in. Three, no discussion of Elisabeth or Wally is allowed. Got it?"

"Isn't that the reason we…" Logan trailed off as Rory shook her head at him, telling him not to go on.

"Good boy, now, shall I go on?" Lorelai asked, moving closer to Rory's side and causing Logan to move more towards the exit.

"No, you shouldn't because if we want to watch _Willy Wonka_ three times than we need to get home so I can pop the popcorn, fish out the chocolate that you've hidden from Luke and pull out the candy corn that I've been craving since dinner tonight."

"Okay, just don't eat my ho-hos," Lorelai warned, expecting Rory to retort with the Gilmore 'dirty' but got it from Logan instead. Her eyes widened towards Rory as the word rolled off his tongue.

"You've been hanging around me too much," Rory commented as she pushed him out of the diner. "And we need to go."

"But, but it's early," Lorelai started to whine, latching onto her daughter's arm as she made her fourth or so attempt to leave with Logan."Two words: _Willy Wonka_."

"Still too early. It's Friday night, the night is young…well, middle aged anyway and you have more than enough time to…"

"To what? Listen to you embarrass Luke by telling riddled sex jokes?"

"No," Luke paused as all three looked towards him behind the counter, "no we don't."

"See, Luke agrees," Rory pointed out.

"But, what about my twenty questions?"

"Considered them banned," she told her and leaned forward for a kiss on the cheek, "Night Mom."

"Night babe, _Willy Wonka_ is in my bedroom!" Lorelai yelled to Rory as she watched Logan play the gentleman card, holding the door to his car as she slid in. On any other occasion, if her daughter would bring a rich playboy home to meet Mommy and Luke, she would whip out the twenty questions and interrogate him about his intentions and she wouldn't fall for the gentleman card. But this time, it was working.

* * *

Author's Notes: I was going to continue the last part but my inspiration and muse left me at the moment. So that will have to wait until the next chapter. Sorry this took so so so long everybody, but at least it's up now. Enjoy, oh, and I'm working on the next chapter of Crush (over Illusive & BWR), so if it's not up within the next weekend, come and hound me. I need to write. Enjoy. Hope it was worth the wait. 


	7. The Golden Ticket

**Chapter Seven**

**The Golden Ticket**

_Dear Wally,_

_I know I keep telling you this everytime I write to you, but I can't help it. I miss you. I will keep telling you that in every letter up until you are home with us again. Misses Hodges and I have been walking through town almost every night and they're just now starting on the decorations for spring. Mr. Woods, our town selectman, is handling it all wrong. I can't explain on paper what he's exactly doing, but you will get a chance to see it first hand. I know you will. Our son or daughter is getting bigger with each step that I take and each piece of pie that Sandra gives me. I want to make the biggest prediction and guess that over baby is a boy. Misses Hodges and Haley, out newest next door neighbor, have told me often that if I think it's a boy, then it most likely is. I can just imagine him looking like you – with a full head of dark hair and those illuminating emerald eyes. I would fall in love all over again. Come Home Soon, Wally. I miss you._

_Love Always,_

_Elisabeth_

In the ten minutes that had passed since Logan had driven them away from the diner, Rory had done nothing but stare at the dashboard in front of her. And all of the time, all she could think about was how this article that she had presented to Doyle and had took her three tries and numerous Gilmore glares for him to say yes to; this article that was due in approximately a week was not even close to being done – even with Logan's help. She had been in possession of the letters for more than a month – Elisabeth had been haunting her since Christmas and they still had next to nothing. Wally, although presumed to be some kind of war hero by all those involved with the letters, was still last name-less and a mystery within himself. Blinking her eyes once at the sound of Logan turning his Porsche's engine off, Rory took a deep breath and was ready to just give up on the article. And she was more than certain that she would be doing fillers and be Doyle's gopher for the rest of her journalism career. _Goodbye Christiane Amanpour_.

Not quite ready to go inside and get started on that sugar induced coma that she had planned with a dose of Gene Wilder and a bit of Molly Ringwald thrown in just for mocking purposes, she sat in the passenger seat and waited for Logan to make the first move, if he had one. Looking over to her left, Rory peered at his profile, smirking as he crinkled his nose and a more confused expression came on his face. It was a funny expression that she didn't know what was for until she followed his gaze over to the front of Babette and Morey's. And that was all she needed to know before the small chuckle escaped her lips. Even without looking back at him, she knew the one question that was running through his mind.

"36."

Logan broke his gaze from the exterior of the neighboring home to look at her clutching onto her purse with her other hand on the door release. "What?" he asked.

"36," she stated again and smirked over at him, seeing a more confused look on his face. "Gnomes. Would you like formal introductions?"

"Um…"

"Babette has a gnome fetish; has names and pedigrees for all of them," Rory went on, watching as Logan's face got lighter like he thought she was joking again. "I'm not kidding."

"I didn't say you were," he let out a small chuckle as they both started to get out of the car at last, "I just think it's funny that your neighbors are more outlandish than Finn," Logan finished off, catching up beside her as they both ascended the two small steps up her porch to the white house that looked like it had been plucked out of an episode of _The Waltons_.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Rory muttered under her breath as she swung open the door without digging under the decorative turtle that was only there for decoration and to be their not-so-secret hiding place for the extra key.

Logan didn't follow her in right away. Trying to process her gnome-obsessed neighbor, her caffeine-high mom and leaving door unlocked, he was starting to see the relevance of her outpatient clinic line that she had pointed out before they had left Yale.

"You leave your door unlocked?" He yelled into the home as he entered the home and shut the door behind him, not sure of whether to lock it or not. Standing in the foyer and waiting for her voice to resonate throughout the smaller home built for two, he noticed his surroundings more. This was her home; an actual home. Neither he nor Honor ever had that. Sure, they had a mother, father and grandfather around them, but he would hardly call them parents or their fortress-like mansion with too many rooms to count, a home. Rory had a home – one that he could only dream of. His eyes roamed around the small space to the pictures and mementos that caught his eyes – snapshots of the Lorelai's at parties, outside their home and some mementos from Rory's elementary days. There was a big sheet of green construction paper with her name on it in bright blue paint. Next to her name were a mess of colors that formed into a painting of the house and two brunettes. Logan smiled at the sight and couldn't imagine how like would be if he had grown up like Rory and her mom. It would be different, that's for certain. Sometimes he could imagine it but most time he couldn't. Not with Mitchum Huntzberger as a father. Glancing back towards the opening towards the front hallway, Logan was curious as to where his Elisabeth might have gone.

"You leave your door unlocked?" He yelled again, hoping for an answer this time around and some indication as to her whereabouts in the house.

"It's a small town Logan, the only person who breaks into our house is Kirk and that's all because he has this weird sleep walking syndrome and he breaks into everyone's house."

Logan poked his head around and into the hallway, spotting her frame disappearing into yet another room. Not wanting to lose sight of her again, he followed her into the room and wasn't really surprised at what he saw – Yale memorabilia, books, a tiny twin bed. It all screamed Rory and while not an exact replica of her dorm, was pretty close in likeness. His eyes shifted around and once he spotted her searching through her sock drawer that was bulging at the seems. Stepping lightly further into the room, he noticed that her feet were bare and her skirt had been changed to a loose pair of pajama pants with Curious George™ images floating around the light blue color of them.

"Who's Kirk?" he asked in the middle of his observation.

"Town Millionaire. Don't worry, you'll probably see him tomorrow. I can guarantee it."

"Can you?"

"I can," she confirmed, turning around to face him and pulling her soft curls up into a ponytail all in one movement. She looked relaxed, despite all that had happened tonight. "Want some?"

Logan stopped in his tracks and turned his eyes back to her again from wandering off, relieved and just a tiny bit confused to find her holding another set of pajama pants and t-shirt. Clearing his throat, he had to ask just to clarify everything, "Excuse me?"

"Do you want some? Pajamas? And I already know where your mind went, so let's not get started on that conversation."

"Really, do you?"

"Yes, Logan, I do," the tone of her voice changed and Logan loved it. He loved teasing her, knowing that eight times out of ten it would go in his favor. She dropped the clothes on top of her bed and twirled back around, heading back to that famous sock drawer that held her multicolored stripped toe socks that he remembered seeing her in one day at her dorm. "Do you want them or not?" Her tone again changed to something just around annoyed and he couldn't help but gloat.

"Want what?"

"Logan!"

"Oh, you mean these?" Logan picked up the pair of orange, turtle embroidered pants, pulling them up to his waist to humor both her and him. "I would be risking a lot if I actually put these on Ace."

"Like what?"

"Oh, let's see, like my reputation…" Logan trailed off, foreseeing how she could use this to her advantage. "How do I know you won't take pictures and blackmail me for something you really want? I do have my manhood to protect."

"Okay," she leaned up against her dresser and started again, "one, your reputation could never be ruined and I'm not even going to venture into anything concerning your manhood. Two, if you don't put those on, you'll be sleeping in the clothes you have on because you are not stripping in my bed and three, it's called trust."

"In your bed?"

"I'm upstairs tonight. You're in here."

"Alright, but you're forgetting something Ace."

"What's that?"

"I'm not wearing these, I cannot be seen anywhere wearing orange pants. That's Finn's thing."

Rory couldn't believe her ears. He was bring ridiculous and so what if his manhood got damaged by him wearing orange pants with turtles all over them? He had to sleep in something. Rolling her eyes, she had to comment, there was no other choice.

"Please, this, from a guy, who not two hours ago looked like he could give the real Marilyn Monroe a run for her money? Yea, that's rich."

"I'm still passing."

"I'm sure you are," Rory let out a deep sigh and walked out of the room, yelling behind her, "Come on!"

Tossing the turtle orange pants back on her bed, Logan followed her into the kitchen where she had been waiting for him. Rory instantly grabbed his wrist and pulled him out into their very-lived in living room. His eyes wandered again for a moment, soaking in his surroundings before she waved the remote control in front in his face.

"Good, I've got your attention now. Logan, this is Sid. Sid, this is Logan. Sid loves me and if you press all the right buttons and turn on _Willy Wonka_, Sid will love you too."

"Your remote's name is Sid?"

"Mom calls him something else, but it'd be too much for your virgin ears," she let out a half smiles, knowing she'd won this battle and clapped her hands over her head, slowly turning back towards the kitchen and yelled, "Chop! Chop!"

"Is that a hint?" He threw in just so she could smile more.

"Something like that."

One hour, twenty minutes, two bags of popcorn, two large cherry sodas and numerous other sugary candies later, they were both on their last limb. Rory had rewound the DVD twice, wanting to see all the oompa-loompa parts again – in honor of Lorelai, she claimed. And Logan let her. He honestly didn't mind and it didn't look like he was going to last much long with the way that they were going. He was tired, she was tired and both of them were feeling the after effects of Wally and Elisabeth, instead of the sugar and chocolate that they both had equally shared in. His attention shuffled as she turned the DVD off and surfed right on over to the George Burns Show, almost muting the program altogether.

"We need to go to bed," he suggested first, watching her eyes slip in and out of slumber.

"No," she slowly turned her head and shook it against the comfy-ness of the couch. "No bed. Couch good."

"Bed more comfortable."

"Couch good."

"You're stubborn."

"I'm a Gilmore Girl, get used to it," she spat back, winning this round of their on-going debate.

The silence had started to kick in then with only the sound of Gracie and George's banter faintly going on in the background. Rory let her eyes slip close as she barely saw Logan turn his head towards her. She could feel him staring at her without looking at him with eyes open and it wasn't that she didn't care, it was just that she didn't want to open her eyes back up. She was tired – both with the general day and with chasing Wally and Elisabeth around. And just like he could read her mind, Logan broke the comfortable silence between them.

"Rory…" His voice was sleepy too and when she didn't answer right away, he called her again, "Ace…."

"Hmmm?" she answered, smiling to herself about his nickname for her with her eyes still closed.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For us not finding Elisabeth right away or anything from Luke."

"Don't be sorry," she told him, covering his middle arm with her cooler hand.

"I can't not be sorry, Ace," Logan started out, watching a loose piece of hair fall from her ponytail. Fighting the urge to reach out and tuck it back behind her hair, Logan concentrated on just her hand on his arm; the feeling was not like any other he had felt and looking back up to her face, he knew why. "We've been chasing the both of them for weeks and what do we have to show for it besides fifty-odd some letters and one last name?"

"Logan," her calm voice stopped him from going further into his own rant on why they hadn't found anything thus far and also gave him a chance to breathe, looking back to her hand that hadn't moved an inch since she set it there. He felt her fingers butterfly over his skin and he bit his tongue and took a deep breath to distract his mind from the feelings that wanted to resurface, against his will.

"Logan, don't worry about it. We'll find something," she confirmed as he looked towards her to see a sliver of her blue eyes slip behind her drooping eyelids. "I promise."

"Okay," Logan paused, watching her head drop back on the back of the couch. Reaching for the quilt that lay over on the other side of her, Logan watched her body move slightly towards him. "So, bed now?" He suggested, smiling all the way and hoping she would crack out one too.

"Couch," she paused as Logan moved his arm a bit so she was now leaning comfortably on his arm. "Couch good."

_Yes, the couch was good._

_

* * *

_

Coffee was good. Is was so good that Luke let her have two full cups this morning and sent her on her way with three more – one for Rory, one for Logan and one more for her – each of them clearly marked so she wouldn't get confused and drink all three of them on her way there. Lorelai was peppy today and was heading towards her front door, her gaze slightly distracted by the black foreign automobile that looked so out of place in this tiny town. Especially compared to her trusty old Jeep and Morey's excuse for a motorcycle.

Continuing on her path towards the closed white door that she prayed was open because she couldn't multi-task at this moment in time, Lorelai pushed the door open and was almost ready to blurt out a quirky pop culture reference about Central Perk when another one took its place just by looking into the living room. Setting the coffees with the carrier on the table in front of the couch and silently moving to see the scene before her, Lorelai brought her hand to her chest and muttered to herself, "Holly Marie Combs and Brian Krause would be proud."

Logan was in the corner in a sitting position, his left arm on the armrest and his right over the slumping shoulder of her daughter. Rory took up the whole couch, with the quilt that Mia had made for her when they had just moved into the house was spread over her with just a square of it on Logan's leg.

"This would be such a _Charmed_ moment if Rory would share that quilt and you two had a son who came from the future to warn you that your other son is going to turn evil and is trying to get you to have sex because if you don't, he might never be born," Lorelai paused as she was about to wake on of them up," and I am not Drew Fuller."

Gently shaking her soft khaki pants on Logan, Lorelai didn't have to wait long for him to stir from his slumber, unlike Leo and Piper and very unlike Rory, who she knew from years of experience that it would take more than a cold bucket of water to wake her. Logan blinked his eyes open at the touch of her hand and looked around his surroundings, not remembering where he was at the moment. Straightening up on the couch a bit, he felt the weight to his right, turning back to her mother with the same questioning and piercing blue eyes as he had seen before in her daughter. Stumbling for an excuse of some kind of believability, Logan fumbled with his words, trying to explain that nothing happened, but they weren't coming. He had never been in this situation before and didn't know the first thing on how to handle it. Lorelai could see both confusion and worry in his eyes, and with his thoughts in a rollercoaster, she couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Logan…" she called his name right when he regained his ability to speak.

"Nothing happened, I swear. We got to the house and she made me push Sid's buttons while she changed into Curious George™ and I was out here…"

"You haven't ever been in this situation before have you?"

"That obvious?" Logan breathed out and moved a bit, wanting Rory to wake up soon to bail him out of this situation. He was used to this at all.

"Yeah, it's obvious. And if you're trying to wake her up, that's the wrong way."

"How do you wake her up?"

"Gilmore Rule number 60: Tips on How to wake a Gilmore Girl up without having to reassemble yourself. One: call Paris, or Two: the elixir of life," Lorelai held out the extra large cup of coffee and let it wave under her daughter's nose, "Watch and learn."

Lorelai waved it again and Logan watched with interest. Rory's nose twitched once or twice before her arm moved out to take the cup of coffee out of Lorelai's hand. Lorelai, knowing her daughter, inside and out, snatched it away before she could take it.

"You're taking notes, right?" Lorelai directed towards Logan and listened as something along the lines of a growl came out of Rory's lips.

"Was that a growl?" Logan asked, somewhat amused.

"Sounded like it," Lorelai answered, waving the coffee in front of her nose and swipping it away just as quickly again.

"You're both mean," Rory said in mumbles as she braced herself to get up from her comfortable position on the couch next to Logan.

"She lives! She lives! Hallelujah she lives!" Lorelai jumped up from the table and shouted.

Logan smirked at Lorelai as she shouted and pulled his gaze back to Rory who was still resting comfortably on his right arm, with no intention of moving. Lorelai came back around and crouch down to Rory's level, staring at her straight in the eye. "It's almost noon."

"Your point?" Rory grunted, still in her position on the couch.

"It's noon and Saturday."

"Scones?"

"Sookie is most definitely on a scone kick, so I want you up and the both of you at the DragonFly to continue your sugar induced comas by," Lorelai turned to check the clock on the wall whose cuckoo bird was about to come out and announce the time any minute, "let's say one thirty," she said, turning back to see Rory finally get the strength to sit up. "Think you can do that?"

Before Rory could answer, Logan did for the both of them. "We can do that. Right, Ace?" He glanced over to his side only to see she was already up and heading down the hallway towards either the bathroom or her room. "Should I take that as a yes?"

"Probably," Lorelai answered, handing him the other cup of coffee with his name on it which had cooled by now. "So, nothing happened?"

"Thanks and yes, nothing happened."

"Positive?"

"100"

"Good."

There was a short silent period before Lorelai got up from her seat on the coffee table and looked down at him for a brief moment as he mimicked her and stood tall.

"Okay, so I'm off to my Inn. She has a twenty minute time limit in the shower and she'll give you directions to the Inn."

"Sounds good."

"I'm not sure if I like you yet," she said truthfully.

"Understandable. Daughter brings Richie Rich home to renegade heiress mother, I get it."

"You know about me?"

"You're a legend."

"Nice to know."

Lorelai left a few minutes later, leaving him with more than a few tips on how to handle Rory when she got out of the shower and a few more for dealing with Babette when they were ready to come over to the Inn. Logan bit his tongue and held in his laughter as she backed out of the gravel driveway in that trusty old Jeep Jim, as Rory told him the night before as they were treating themselves to a sugar coma. Going back inside to hear if Rory was out of the shower yet, which she wasn't, Logan ventured into the kitchen for a reason that he didn't know of until he found himself picking out the coffee container amidst the junk food emporium that exploded there last night.

Logan smirked as he remembered her outburst about not finding the Skittles midway through the chocolate factory tour. And she must've really wanted those Skittles by looking around the three-walled space. Pressing the 'brew' button on the coffee maker to brew the coffee he didn't realize he was making, Logan heard the shower turn off and he was almost giddy inside – hoping to catch a glimpse of her in a thin towel or lack thereof would do just fine too.

Wiping the thought out of his mind and reminding himself that he can't be thinking these things about this girl, he picked up on the faint footsteps that were slowly stepping down the hallway.

"Logan?" Her voice caught him from behind as the two tall cups were placed on the counter. "Logan, what are you doing?"

He didn't turn towards her. If he turned towards her, that would mean him dropping his jaw and breaking all the rules he had set for himself about Rory. This would mean his eyes going wide and him struggling to get one word out of his mouth. Instead, he just answered her slowly. "Making coffee. The one's from Luke's that your mom left are cold. Hot coffee is better, yes?"

"Um, yeah. Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now go get changed."

"Be right back," she said, not waiting around for him to answer and went into her bedroom to change into something other than the slinky white towel that he caught a glimpse of.

_This girl is going to be the death of me, _Logan thought to himself as her door shut close and the coffee maker buzzed at him. With his hands on the edge of the counter, it was only a few more seconds before she emerged from beyond the door. This time he looked fully at her, knowing she was in something other than the little white towel. With a pair of blue jeans rounding her subtle curves and a royal ruby top that dipped down to just the right place in her chest not revealing too much or too little, she still took his breath away and this was all with just coming out of the room with a pair of socks in her mouth while she run her hands through her damp hair and rumbled it up a bit, creating the curls that he had come to like on her more than the straight style she liked to sport.

"How's that coffee coming?" she asked, pulling on her one short white sock and hinting over towards him.

"It's done. Would you like some?"

"That shouldn't even be something you ask a girl like me."

"I gotta hear it."

"Yes, I want it."

"How much?" he asked, seeing her snarl up towards him as she pulled on her other sock and starred him down.

"You're not seriously asking me that."

"I am. How much?"

"Don't make me hurt you," she threatened and then continued, proving the point that you should never keep a Gilmore from her coffee, "it's Saturday, almost one o'clock, I'm tired, slept next to you on the couch last night…"

"That's not my fault," he butted in.

"And if you seriously think that I won't jump over this table and pounce you just for an 8 ounce cup of coffee, you are seriously mistaken."

"Really?"

"Really," she said with one of her serious faces that he had been acquainted with on more than one occasion. "Coffee now," another demand escaped her lips before she pulled it into a wide smile, "please."

Now, he couldn't resist her. Handing her the warm cup, she yanked it away and he swore he could see a comparison between her and Finn when any kind of alcohol was placed in front of him. She breathed in the aroma and held it in her hands, soaking up what her mother deemed the elixir of life before looking back up at him and taking the conversation in a whole different direction.

"So, you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did alright," he admitted to her, keeping in the pure truth of the situation in his thoughts. "You?"

Rory looked up at him then, debating wheteher to give him the 'yes –I've-never-slept-better-in-my-entire-life' line or just the 'okay' line. Setting the nearly empty coffee cup on the table's edge, she decided on the in-between line. "Pretty good. So, you think you're up for another sugar coma?"

"Is there a right answer to that?" He spat back, taking the cup with his and over to the kitchen sink.

"Not really, but I can tell you that you're actually going to like this one."

* * *

The DragonFly Inn was nestled cozy and comfortable into the wood with no name. The Elder Lorelai's second child and Stars Hollow's newest pride and joy was in a word – packed. Rory had been to the Inn on Saturday on countless occasions and recalling each and every one of those in her mind as they approached the small sized lot, she had never seen it like this. Presuming that is was all because of Sookie's All-You-Can-Eat-Scone-Saturday Fest going on, Rory immediately told Logan to take the back road so they could do two things – one was avoid Michel at the front desk at all costs and the other was so they could actually get out without having every one of the actual paying customers move their cars. 

Pointing this way and that way towards the closest possible spot next to her mother's Jeep in the back, Rory slid out of the tiny Porsche before Logan even had an opportunity to turn the engine off. Up the stairs, she headed towards Lorelai and Sookie, who were squealing like fan girls because of their crowd compared to Luke's, whose was on the low side when she and Logan had passed by about five minutes or so ago.

"You're here!" Sookie screamed and halted production on the scone assembly line but only for a second. "First, look at my customers," Sookie pushed Rory towards the swinging door so she could see the dining room packed and twirled her around once again. "Second, where's your hunk?"

"Hunk?" Rory questioned before taking a scone off the plate Taylor was carrying out to a table that she didn't really care about. Right then and there, all she cared about was that scone and possibly a cup of coffee that she knew Manny would be getting for her. The last time she was here, Manny had learned his lesson in withholding coffee from her.

"Yeah, your mom mentioned something about you being Holly Marie Combs and him being Brian Krause. Speaking of, I just watched that episode the other day. I think I'm going to divorce Jackson and take Brian for myself. He is so hunky."

"Sookie?"

"Huh?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I think she's talking about me," Logan popped out from nowhere and startled Rory a bit before Lorelai joined them again with coffee cups and no Manny tagging along with her.

"I'd have to agree. I mean, I did tell her he was a hunk. Don't you think he's a hunk Rory?" Lorelai started to tease, noticing the slight blush on her cheeks arising.

Taking the coffee cup from her mother's hands, Rory decided to ignore her comment and proceeded to introduce her hunk, no, Logan to Sookie, the four star CIA chef who also served on council as her mother's best friend and self-appointed aunt to Rory. "Sookie, Logan. Logan, Sookie. Scones now?"

"That's it? That's an introduction?"

"Are you kidding me? It's more an introduction than the one you gave Jason," Rory spat back at the not-much-taller brunette standing beside Logan.

"Here's a real introduction," Lorelai set her coffee mug down on the stainless steel island and cleared her throat, her arm sliding around the back of Logan and pulling him closer into the group of girls. "Sookie, I would like you to meet Logan Huntzberger. Logan here volunteered himself to help Rory with the letters and this is the Logan that I found her asleep with on the couch this morning even though the night before I told her about the rule again because I'm her mother and I have to."

Sookie looked between the Gilmore girls and could just imagine the smoke coming out of their ears and World War III erupting in her kitchen right when the most successful of Saturday Scone Days was going on. Instantly pulling Logan away, she let them go at it and led Logan out of the kitchen, grabbing a plate of scones on the way and they traveled their way down the hallway.

Logan wasn't sure exactly what to say to the chef who was by the looks of it, five months pregnant and waddling the whole time. So, he came up with the classic line of hello for her. "Nice to meet you."

"You too. Did you know about the rule?" Sookie asked, venturing into unknown territory that she hadn't dared before.

"Miss Gilmore had mentioned something of it last night, but I guess it slipped the both of our minds when the sugar cut off our circulation and Rory showed no sign of moving from the couch," he explained as Sookie's face was lit with enlightenment.

"You guys watched _Willy Wonka_, didn't you?"

"Her choice."

"Yeah, the sugar from both the movie and their cupboards will send you into a coma. It's nice to meet you too, Logan. I'm Sookie St. James," she properly introduced herself, predicting that the girls would be simmering down by now after a quick spat of wits that they usually had when the rule was mentioned and lead him further down the hallway towards Lorelai's office. "So, you're here because of the letters, right?"

"Yeah. We kind of had a breakthrough last night only to have an anvil fall in front of us again when Rory played twenty questions with Luke."

"Did you find Elisabeth?" Sookie twirled around a moment after opening the wood door with her eyes spread wide and the hint of a smile emerging on her apple round face.

Logan smirked at her energy for a project that was literally driving him and Rory half insane. The letters seemed to be the object of everyone's interests these days – his, Rory's, her mother's and now even her mom's best friend. "Um, not quite. We have a last name to Elisabeth but Luke wasn't able to tell us anything. I guess he's lived here his whole life, but he didn't remember anything."

"Really? That's wonderful!" She beamed as stomping footsteps stopped in the doorway and he looked over to see Rory with her arms crossed and a slight frown on her face.

"You took my scones," Rory grunted and came all the way in the office, taking the plate from Sookie and slumping down on the small leather sofa pushed against the wall. Popping half of one into her mouth all at once, Logan was impressed. Not everyone could do that and still have Rory's figure. "I thought you tamed her," she directed towards Sookie.

"Sorry, hon, that's your area. I'm just one half of the people who feed her," Sookie pointed out and collapsed in the leather chair across from the couch while Logan remained standing, waiting for something else to happen. "So, tell me about Elisabeth now."

"Quick question Ace, does everyone know about these letters?"

"Just about," she answered quickly, setting the plate on the table in front of her and bringing her legs up to sit Indian style on the sofa. "All except the illusive Miss Patty, who, if she would ever stay in one place for a given set of days, we could track down and close this case of the hopeful romantic Elisabeth."

"Have you tried Taylor yet?" Sookie mentioned, grabbing a scone for herself and the unborn child she was carrying around in her round stomach.

"Taylor?" Rory raised her eyebrows as Logan leaned back on the cherry finished desk and listened in on Sookie's suggestion. "Why would I go to Taylor?"

"Remember when Jackson was voted town selectman? You know, before he got sick of it and quit?"

"I think everyone does. He used Davey to get our votes, which I have to admit, swayed me to vote for him."

"You can't go wrong with a baby," Sookie added on before continuing on her Taylor suggestion. "When Jackson was town selectman he was in charge of everything."

"Wait a minute, town selectman?" Logan asked, but was ignored in an instant as Rory and Sookie faded him out and continued just between them like he wasn't there.

"Everything?"

"Everything," Sookie paused, raising her eyebrows slightly, praying that Rory caught on to her subtlety, but she was a tad slow today. Presuming that it was because of the sugar coma from last night, Sookie told her. "Censuses."

"Censuses?"

"Logs, records, huge green books on all of the residents since The Civil War. Possibly even some before that since you know Taylor keeps bragging how there were others before then."

"Censuses," Rory caught on then, her eyes becoming wider as Lorelai joined them after dealing with Michel's damage control at the front desk. "Those would probably tell us about Elisabeth, if there was anything there," Rory paused and looked over at Logan who just shrugged his shoulders before answering her.

"It's worth a shot Ace."

"Plus, Taylor has been itching for a good Gilmore threat. It's been a while since your mom here gave him one."

"Not true! I just gave him one….oh, yea, it has been a while," Lorelai quickly changed her mind to objecting to Sookie's claim. "Give him the one with the…"

"Oooooo, that one's a good one. Or the…" Rory finished her mom's sentence for her and Lorelai did the same for hers. Their little blowout about the rule a few minutes ago was now erased from the both of their minds and they were thinking the same things about how to threaten Taylor to hand over the censuses without any sound.

"Oh yes, use that one," Lorelai pointed out as Logan pushed himself off of the desk and stood side by side with Rory as she stood up and stopped in front of the girls. "Logan, remember to pay attention too."

"Yes, you'll get great tips to add to that Gilmore Girl Handbook," Sookie added on.

"Any idea where they sell copies?"

* * *

"Rory, no." 

"Taylor, please."

"They're not allowed outside of the town perimeters. No, I'm sorry."

"Please Taylor. And when's the last time they were ever out of that cabinet? They look old and musty and I think you could do without just one or two for a week or so," Rory suggested, looking at the sage-y green books that held the town's citizens records for the past 100 or so years. She looked back at Taylor for a moment while Logan hung back, watching her in action and silently taking notes for his own personal reference.

"Rory…"

"Taylor," her voice resorted back to that little girl voice that Taylor was used to and batted her eyes, making them rounder and innocent in that way that she knew Taylor couldn't resist. "Please?"

"That's a threat?" Logan muttered under his breath, low enough for Rory to hear and for Taylor, the town selectman that he hadn't been formerly introduced to, pick up the end of it.

"Did I hear threat?"

"Thanks Logan," Rory gave him a mini-glare before going off on Taylor. Logan stood back and just watched her, still taking notes and trying not to be impressed but he was.

Who knew that this girl in her petite frame could say all those things and make this sixty-some year old man who had complete rule over the tiny town, twitch and become speechless? He knew he liked her for a reason, although this was not the true reason he did, it sure added to it. Smirking as he heard the last words of _I swear I'll do it_, come out of her mouth, he wasn't quite sure she did the part of giving him a good threat. But of course, the look on his face told a different story.

Taylor took a heavy breath and gave into the girl who won everyone's heart, jingling the keys in his hand as a sign that she had won…this round anyhow. "You have a week. No more, no less. Understand?"

"Understood. Thank you Taylor."

Once Taylor handed over not two or three censuses but nine instead and setting them in the back trunk of his Porsche, Logan leaned back against his trunk and looked over at her brushing her loose hairs out of her face.

"You know, maybe I should get you to make my threats for me," he suggested, slightly playing with her.

"With what? Your line?"

"One, not everything Stephanie tells you is true, especially about that line and two, if I had one, I'm sure you could make them back down."

"Logan, don't flatter yourself. If you want to cut that line, which there is one, down to say, the size of the St. Lawrence Seaway, you can do it yourself," Rory patted his shoulder twice and left him behind, trading in the cool air for the warm interior of the car.

A soft sigh escaped his lips as he watched her swiftly slide into the passenger seat and he revealed to only himself that, "I might just do that."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I am so so so so so so so sorry that it took this long to get this chapter up, but there was good reason! It was Taylor and Sookie's fault! Told you it was a good reason. No, but, really, this chapter gave me a heap of trouble and I really had to do my research with the upcoming chapters too. So that's my real reason. Reviews are love :D  



	8. Taken

_Chapter Eight_

**Taken**

_Dear Wally,_

_The night is young and Misses Hodges has already retired to it, leaving me to sit here on the veranda and stare up at the stars, hoping you're wishing on the same one that I am. Me writing you these love letters is just a thing to occupy my time and I have to say that I don't think the letters are going to be enough for me to make it through another week if you don't write me back. I have less than a month until our baby is born and I know praying for the war to end in a week so you will return safely to me in time for this little one's birth. But I know hat you keep telling me to keep to reality. I love you Wally. Hurry home to me._

_Yours Always,_

_Elisabeth _

Tacking the last fluorescent green flyer up on the bulletin board in her dorm's vestibule, she stepped back to see her masterpiece at hand. No doubt her graphics design professor would be proud of her, not to mention her marketing executive guru father - just the right amount of text, an eye-popping picture and a bright color to make people notice. Satisfied with part two of her five step plan, Stephanie Fontaine backed up and headed in the direction of the nearest coffee cart. She was just like Rory in a sense, but instead of the coffee, she was in search of the most perfect strawberry smoothies that she had ever tasted. And after a morning like she had, complete with a complaining Colin and grumpy roommate, she was most definitely in need of one.

Branford Hall was two right turns from being at their feet and the books of years worth of Stars Hollow's history were about to tumble out of both their arms. Letting a small chuckle escape her lips, Rory readjusted and watched Logan stumble with his own stack out of the corner of her eye. He probably wouldn't admit it to anyone, let alone her, but he was a bit clumsy in his own sense. And that was just one of the things she had learned about him in the past twenty four hours. From his love for chocolate covered raisins to his ability to put a straight serious face on in the midst of one of her mother's pop culture reference jokes, Rory knew that there were definitely many sides of Logan Huntzberger and she wanted to know them.

Pausing for just a second, Rory shook the feeling from her and they turned the last corner to her dorm. Surprised that they made it this far without dropping their binders, but she thought too soon. Logan changed all that with the slip of his hand, trying to get a better grip. The binders tumbled down to the ground in front of him and Rory watched him roll his eyes and held back a smile as he cursed under his breath before bursting into the loudest laugh that she had ever produced.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked, crossing his arms for a second before reaching out to her pile, silently threatening to tip hers over as well.

"Pick them up, Logan. Two more steps and we're at my dorm," she rolled her eyes, swerving out of his reach and balancing her stack on her knee before adjusting her grip again.

"Only if you tell me again why we couldn't have done this in two trips?"

"That's easy," she said like everyone should know and stepping ahead a bit, "it's against the rules."

"It's against the rules?" He echoed her with disbelief behind his voice.

"It's against the rules," she stated again, flashing a smile, hoping that would be all he needed to pick his eight binders up off the ground, walk two steps to her dorm and then dump them all on the nearest surface that wasn't the paved courtyard pathway.

"You know, I might be picking these things up, but you owe me so much more," he commented, quickly swooping up the binders into his arms and catching up to his _Elisabeth_ who had disappeared behind the wall. Watching her stumble to pull out the key to her dorm, Logan basked in the moment, up until she placed two of her binders on top of his. "Isn't that against the rules?"

"Making a guy hold your things or lug fifteen or more suitcases up a twenty story stairwell is never against the rules," she simply said back as she pushed open the door and let her half of the binders fall on to the floor. "And see; now we don't have to go all the way back to East Germany, where you parked your car, to get the rest."

"Why would I park my car by your dorm when I need it close to mine?"

"Shorter distance and again, against the rules. Gilmores will refrain from any shape or form of physical exercise, except," she emphasized, "when there's a sale on Jimmy Choo's or any other form of adornment for your feet. It's all in the handbook." Rory tossed her keys into the catchall on the table and immediately discarded her shoes, which she had just finished lecturing Logan on. Walking across the room, disappearing from Logan's sight for a moment and came back within the minute with a cool water bottle in her hand. Drinking it like she had been hiking for three days in the Sahara, Rory looked at all the binders that would take away from her studying for her stats exam. But that was okay by her and of course, throwing a few of those things Logan's way wasn't a bad idea either.

"Again, I ask, where can I get a copy of this said handbook?" He repeated for what felt like the millionth time today. "So, I guess I should go," he mentioned as she stared down at the binders and the awkward silence had surround them in the room with no Paris to break it up. Shuffling his feet back towards the door, he was surprised when she pulled him back.

Truth be told, he was sort of hoping that she would do that. He honestly didn't want to go just yet and this was the first time in a long time that he admitted that to himself. Spending just the night before and almost the whole day with Rory wasn't enough.

"Not so fast," she told him, pulling him away from the door he was about to bolt out of.

"Ace?" He questioned her motions and not giving him an answer right away, he was skeptical to her intentions. But he actually wasn't surprised when she bent down and picked up possibly the biggest and heaviest binders of them all and tossed them into his arms.

"Now you can go," she finished off with a smile.

"I have your permission to go?"

"Yes, you do. I'll see you, I guess, when I see you."

"Which would be tomorrow in Russian Lit and then at the paper," he reminded her of the one and only class that they had together. The only reason he had noticed was that she was the possibly the only one who responded to the professor's rhetorical questions.

"Yeah, tomorrow," she agreed and was now practically pushing him out the door.

"Call me crazy, Ace, but just a minute ago, you were making me stay and now you're pushing me out? Where do you want me to go?"

"Out," Rory stopped him at the door as he got a better grip on the binders in his arms, "that way you can find more on Elisabeth and even better, you won't be here when Paris comes home."

"Now that's an incentive, Ace and yet, I still feel so used," he sarcastically added as he now found himself right outside her door again. "So, I guess this is the part where I bid the girl goodnight?"

"More like afternoon," Rory retorted with a small smile escaping her lips. "I'll talk to you tomorrow Logan."

Shutting the door behind her as a smile graced his face, Rory leaned back against the door and let a deep sigh out of her petite frame. _What a weekend…  
_

* * *

Logan spun on his heel, knowing or at least pretending to know that he had just skipping into Rory's world and wasn't planning to escape anytime soon. Or of course, it helped that Sookie or her mother wouldn't let him either. Getting a good grip on the three biggest binders he knew Rory had given him on purpose, Logan started back en route to his dorm. Between the party last night and the sugar comas in Stars Hollow, he'd had a busy weekend already and it wasn't even half over. Her town was small, as he had pointed out many times before but it fit her and he could just imagine Finn having the time of his life there…especially with Sookie. Her red hair alone would get him there and her cooking would make him stay.

He was still en route towards his dorm, but the groups of girls huddled together and apart caught his attention as he traveled through the courtyard between his and Rory's towers. Stopping only for a moment to grab a cup of coffee to prepare himself for both Finn and Stars Hollow's history, he was caught off guard as Robert flashed a lime green flyer in front of his face.

"Nice, Robert," he said not even looking up at him, but trying to save his cup of coffee from an untimely death.

"No, I should be saying that to you and a giant thank you from the rest of the male student body."

Logan looked over towards him now and with a confused look on his face, wondering what the hell he was actually talking about. "Excuse me?"

Robert shook his head immediately after, patted his friend on the back and turned him towards the majority of the female population at Yale, still huddled closely in groups that didn't usually mesh together. Taking his small coffee and bringing it to his lips, Logan realized something was off, but wasn't fully connecting the dots at the moment.

"Since when does Danielle hang out with Vanessa? And what's up with Cheryl and Stella?"

"Read the flyer, Logan," Robert reminded Logan to do, patting him once again on the shoulder and disappearing into the conference of females that were glancing back and forth at him. "Oh! And thanks!"

Shaking the bad vibration from the back of his neck, he juggled the binders in his arms and flipped over the flyer and this time nearly spilled all the coffee out as he read over the words that no doubt will be haunting him for a while. And there was definitely no doubt to him who did it or how he was going to make her pay for it

* * *

He tossed the empty cup into the container as soon as he barged his way through her dorm. If this was why she had entrusted him with a spare set of keys then that was a good investment, but he was still going to kill her for what she had done.

"Stephanie! Get out here now!" He yelled at the top of his lungs so that the whole floor could hear. Unfortunately that didn't make her come out any faster.

"Geez Logan, you do know that you sound like her father when you do that, right?" Erin, her roommate said as she came out in curiosity from Stephanie's room instead of her own.

"That's kind of the point Erin. She in there?"

When Erin bit her bottom lip and he knew she was hiding something. Erin always did that, even when they had a thing going on. She crossed the room, avoiding his gaze and still avoiding his question.

"I'll take that as a yes," he answered himself.

"I'm actually not at liberty to say," Erin finally piped in before she scooted out of the dorm that would soon become a battlefield. Logan creased his brow at her remark as he watched her slip out the door. _Excellent preservation skills, Erin._

He wasn't going to delve into what she actually meant at the moment, it would take too much time away from torturing Stephanie. Oh yes, she was going to pay.

"Steph! Now! I'm counting to three…

"I don't need you to count, Log!" Stephanie's voice yelled back from the interior of her own room.

"Then get out here."

"What would be the fun in that? I much enjoy the yelling my name at the top of your lungs. Never had that before," she paused and he heard feet shuffling around," except that time in sixth grade, oh and then last week with…"

"Stephanie! And what does sixth grade have to do with this?" Logan lowerd his yelling range but still managed to get his point across with a furious tone.

"Alright, alright, don't get your panties all in a twist and sixth grade has everything to do with this," Stephanie came out of her dorm all dressed and ready to go out like she had a hot date planned in the middle of the day.

"What the hell is this, Steph?" Logan held up the fluorescent flyer in his hand and she didn't even bother to glance at it.

"It's a green flyer," she smartly answered while putting her cherry flavored lip gloss on.

"Okay," Logan took a few seconds to calm himself down again and continued, "Let's play it this way – why is my face on it with a word that I haven't been…" he paused again, trying to remember if there was ever a time that he was _taken_.

"Let me, Logan – never. Until now, that is," Stephanie turned fully towards her lifelong friend and flashed him one of her Fontaine smiles which only meant one thing to Logan – she had something up her sleeve.

Her let her get to him and that never happened. With her index finger closing his open and shocked jaw, Logan snapped together and tried to examine her like he did Colin and Finn but he should've known better than to even attempt it. Stephanie was smarter than Colin and Finn put together and could easily hide anything and everything from him.

"Steph – what are you doing?"

"Putting more gloss on because I don't have enough on my lips. And this is all so I can look pretty when you take me to my Ethics class."

Logan looked at her blankly again, not sure what to say after that, if anything. Standing silently beside the table and mirror that she and Erin had set up in the common room, Logan wasn't surprised when she looped her arm through his and lef him out the door. This was definitely going to be good.

"Since when do you have Ethics class on a Saturday at five?"

* * *

Stephanie looped her arm through Logan's and silently let him glance around the cafeteria while she sipped on the strawberry smoothie that was her staple and look for a couple of seats secluded from everything else. He was getting evil snares left and right from the girls he'd bedded and she was letting him soak it all in before she broke the even bigger news to him. His head swung from side to side as she found a pair of seats at a random table which just happened to be the epicenter of the cafeteria where the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority sat at this table and they disappeared as soon as Logan sat down across from Stephanie and leaned forward, like they were in middle school and sharing a secret about the logic inside of Colin's head.

"What the hell did you do?" He asked, not wasting any time. She let him linger for a moment and gather up a million more questions in his mind. It was fun watching Logan fidget for a chance. It wasn't something that he got, especially around girls.

She was different of course, and so was Rory. Although they hadn't spoken on a regular basis, there was the occasional chat at the coffee cart and Stephanie with her observant ways noticed that about her. She made him fidget. There was only one other time that Logan fidgeted and Stephanie was probably the only person who remembered it and was brave enough to tease him about it.

"Missy Trudeau," Stephanie stated, hoping he wouldn't go all blonde on her and make her do more work than she already had done.

"Missy Trudeau? Steph, that was ages ago," Logan told her, creasing his forehead and wondering what exactly Missy had to do with anything. "What does Missy Trudeau have to do with this?"

"Everything," Stephanie answered quickly, "she has everything to do with this." Stephanie set her smoothie to the side and leaned back in a bit to continue. "When's the last time you had a date – and I mean a date-date, where you can tell me her full name, what designer shoes she was wearing and the scent of her perfume?"

He stared back at her, trying to think of the smart answer that would come out in just a second, but he couldn't think of it. And it was just three days ago, before Isabel. What the date that unmemorable?

"Exactly my point," his blonde friend pointed out. "Missy Trudeau was the first girl ever to make you fidget like you're doing now. You were head over heels in like with Missy, who now has miraculously turned into, what are you calling her these days, _Elisabeth_?"

"Rory? No, no, no, no, no," Logan couldn't believe Stephanie was lecturing him on this when she was having just as much trouble choosing between Colin and Joseph.

"Yes, yes, yes," she paused only for a moment, "okay, total _Singin' in the Rain_ moment there."

"Steph, I don't like Rory," he said aloud, sinking in the words that he'd just said, "okay, I didn't mean it how it sounded. I like her, but I don't like her-like her." Logan quickly covered for himself.

"Yes you do, Logan."

"No, Steph, I don't."

Stephanie stared him back in the eyes and tackled him into a staring contest like they used to have often. There was something between them, she knew it and was going to everything possible to make them both realize it. Rory was going to be easy, but Logan – he was the one that needed the work. Rory was different than the others he had taken a liking to – she was actually smart, for one and two, could keep up with anyone in their small circle of friends – especially Colin. "Okay, Logan," Stephanie slid out of the seat she was in, holding onto her smoothie and wrapping the purses' handle onto her fingers. "So you don't like her. You keep trying to tell yourself that but that line of yours and that those little black books – poof!"

* * *

Logan sat there for a few more minutes after Stephanie had left, letting all her words sink into his brain again. As much as he would like to admit that she wasn't right, she was – at least on the fidgeting part. But Rory was not Missy, she couldn't be – because if she was, he was doomed. Missy was the epitome of perfect for Logan – deep, soulful green eyes and soft brunette curls and the intelligence that toppled over him and Seth (the brainiac of them all) and the wow power of his father. She was prefect – a little too perfect for him after junior high, but all the same – perfect. Walking back to his dorm the long way, Logan couldn't get Stephanie's word out of his head. And he was sure how he felt about his emphasis on the words '_your Elisabeth_', but did have a tendency to call her that most time as she usually countered back, calling him 'Wally'. There were a few moments this weekend that made him stop sna dthnk about pursuing Rory, but the thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind and her concentrated back on Elisabeth and Wally; the real Elisabeth and Wally.

Seeing that he was coming closer to his dorm, Logan slowed his steps and actually stopped to see a dozen more fluorescent yellow, green, pink, orange and even blue flyers declaring he was officially off the dating market. He head to admit that Stephanie was definitely adamant and seriously knew how to get her point across. And if Logan knew her like he thought he knew her, she would make it either ten times worse or ten times better. Logan was predicting the former in this situation, because this was Rory…his '_Ace_'…his _'Elisabeth'_.


End file.
